The Chaotic Nature of Life
by BloodRedDemon
Summary: Harry Potter is the agent of Death, the Endless. Lifetimes ago, he was pulled from his world and shaped and changed by her to help save those worlds in the most dire need. Now, he has given enough of his blood, sweat and tears and Death has decided to place him in her home universe's Earth. He will eventually find happiness, but Harry Potter was never going to have an easy life.
1. A Meeting with Death

**I really want to write this story, so I have started now. Hopefully you'll enjoy it if you're reading this Author's note, but above that I'm writing this because I want to.**

 **So, it's under the heading of a Harry Potter-Justice League crossover and I'll mainly be using the cartoon as a point of reference because I'm not a massive fan of reading comics. Also because I grew up with the cartoon, and find it very nostalgic. That being said, I find the universe of DC fascinating because of all the intertwined stories and characters. That means I'll likely use other characters and plots in the course of the story, hopefully that's a good thing from your perspective. I'll do my best to explain these without rattling off information that will put off anyone who has read the comics while explaining that what's needed. (That being said, I contradict myself a little in this first chapter. That's on purpose, because it'll be expanded upon later.)**

 **One more thing, this'll almost certainly be a HarryMulti fic. I personally find that slightly more challenging, and that it gives me more options to explore and, on top of that, I think that Fanfiction is the place for fics that are rather unreasonable and that includes multi pairings. If that's a problem for you, I'm afraid this might not be the story for you. In regards to the pairings, I'm happy to receive suggestions that you might have but I'll likely stay true to the show's pairings. Or those I consider important, at least.**

 **Anyway, I hope you enjoy the fic I a writing, and ask that you let me know if you have an interest. I won't usually be posting three chapters in a day, but I've got them all done and see no reason not to. Since I'm posting all three one after the other, I'll only have this one Author's note to start with.**

 **I own nothing of either DC or Harry Potter.**

 **-()()-**

"Bloody hell…" Harry Potter nursed a broken nose even as the blood flow ceased. "Why do you always do it like _that_?"

"Like what?"

"Grabbing me by the _ankle_. Every effing time, my face slams into the floor." He grumbled. Even so, Harry did not want to swear in front of her. "Surely you could just _teleport_ me here, or something? Maybe just pull _all_ of me, instead of dragging my ankle here and bringin' the rest of me along for the ride."

"I could."

"Why _don't_ you?" Harry asked.

"Why would I?"

"Because you're asking me for my help? Because it's the nice thing to do?!"

"Oh, man up. You can handle it."

"Don't smirk!" Harry exclaimed in indignation. "And so what if I can handle it?! I don't _want_ to handle it, because it fu-bloody hurts!"

"Hm."

"Tss." Harry hissed in annoyance.

"Besides, we both know you'll help me no matter what."

"Do we?"

"We do. You've gotten the chance to help innocents each time, haven't you?"

"So?" Harry frowned. "Anyone would agree I've done enough by now."

"Almost anyone. _You_ wouldn't say that, would you? Now unless you were arguing with me. Besides, you have selfish reasons to help me as well."

"Smirking little…" Harry refused to let himself swear as the pale girl leant forwards and gave a cocky half-smile.

"Don't you like my gifts? I could send you on without them, if that's the case."

"I do appreciate them," Harry shook his head with determination. "Thanks again and all…

"And you get to spend time with me."

"A real privilege." Harry said.

"Was that sarcasm?"

"Um…" Harry balked at the danger in her tone. "K-Kind of, but it _is_ a privilege. I'm only a mortal, after all…"

"'Only a mortal?' Are you criticizing my choice of a champion?"

"No… I'm not saying that, I just meant that- I mean, you're above me. _Most_ mortals only get to see you twice, and I'm very happy that I've gotten to spend more time with you than I have any right to."

"Well aren't you quite the charmer? When did that happen?"

"Shut up," Harry grumbled even as he tightened his hold on his occlumency to prevent heat from climbing up his neck. It was difficult, as she flicked her wrist and a comfortable settee was suddenly under him and, more significantly, sat next to him. Then, she nudged him in the side.

"Don't be like that. I was only kidding."

Harry shivered slightly as she leant on his shoulder. "I know."

"You've always been a charmer. Even when I first met you, you were charismatic. Shy as anything, but Charismatic nonetheless."

"Thanks."

"Don't be upset, I didn't mean it."

"I know."

"Then why are you being so curt with me? We were having such a nice conversation…"

"You're… sitting very close to me." Harry said, through slightly gritted teeth.

"Oh…" Harry could feel her smiling at him even as she continued. "Since when have you been so nervous around girls? I know you don't have much experience, to say the least, but your _shyness_ faded a good while ago… didn't it?"

"I'm not nervous around normal girls," Harry took a controlled breath in and out through his mouth. "Just… just…"

"Just what?"

"Just extraordinarily powerful and beautiful beings that make me feel as insignificant as an ant in comparison?"

"Why thank you," Death's lips quirked higher. "But you really are underestimating your own significance."

"How do you figure?" Harry asked, confused. "What could I _possibly_ do to begin to approach your level?"

"I can't tell you that," Death's smile changed slightly here. Harry did not understand what the change meant.

"Oh…" Harry blinked. "Well, does it have to do with where I'm going next?"

"It does."

"Okay." Now, he frowned. "Where am I going next?"

"Earth." Death replied. "Or a different version of what you think of as the Earth."

"A different version of Earth… I think I remember something about that," Harry nodded slowly as he cast his mind back. "Some science thing about parallel universes."

"Close enough," Death nodded, still without a true smile; that was an odd sight for Harry to see on the usually happy girl's face. He would have expressed his concern, had she not continued. "And… and this might be the last time I see- have a mission for you."

"What?" Harry's surprise was clear, and enough that his normally sharp mind completely missed the correction. This had been his life for as long as he could remember, and he had not considered that it could _end_. "Why?"

"Something has changed," Death said.

"What's changed?"

"I… can't say." Her smile was gone entirely at this point, replaced with an expression of melancholy. "Not yet."

"So you will tell me eventually?" Harry inferred. "If it's something… _bad_ , please let me help. If it's something I did, then I'm sorry." His tone was sincere.

"You don't need to be," Death rested her hand on his knee. Harry didn't react because his mind was on other matters. "And you've helped me more, already, than I can express."

"How have I-" Harry was cut off by the Endless.

"It's not important." Death shook her head, and silky black hair swayed. Harry frowned, as he did not believe the immortal, but chose to stay quiet. "I need to give you this." She produced a scroll of paper, her ankh seal unbroken, and handed it to the male next to her.

"Clues, I assume?" Harry guessed.

"Vague, as always, yes." Death nodded with a small smile again. "But it's all I can give you. You'll be able to figure out who they're pointing you towards quickly enough, I'm confident."

"Okay." Harry nodded, and looked around himself. "Ah. Where's my bag?" He asked, slightly confused.

"Here." And it was suddenly in Death's hand. Harry wasn't freaked out by that, as it _was_ her domain. The pale woman ran a finger over the circle inside a triangle intersected by a vertical line before handing it to Harry once again.

"Thanks," Harry smiled slightly at her as he took the rucksack and tucked the scroll inside. He would look at it when he had access to this world's records. Death returned it halfheartedly. "Is there anything else I need this time?" He asked.

"You need to be tougher," Death nodded. "Some of the enemies you will have to face will be tougher than you have fought before. Oh, and you may need to travel in environments you don't have much experience in. Space, for example."

" _Space_?" Harry asked. "Why would I need to be able to travel in space?"

"Aliens are relatively commonplace for this version of Earth. At least by this time."

"Huh. Okay, that should be interesting at least." Harry shrugged. "Will that happen between here and there?" Death nodded. "What else do I need to know?"

"Several things." Death said, as her brow furrowed in thought. "Firstly, Earth has been invaded by an alien race called Thanagarians. They are invading soldiers."

"Huh." Harry nodded, understanding the significance of the last word. Soldiers would have invaded Earth because the higher ups ordered it, and so he would not hold it against them as a whole.

"Secondly, there are individuals with unique abilities, or powers if you will, that fight to protect those who are put in danger by their counterparts, called Superheroes. They, and the Supervillains who are their opposites, will be vitally important to you. I am asking you to help them in their pursuits, and you will want to anyway for the fact that they fight for the innocents. As well as that, some of them will become important to you on a more personal level.

"Thirdly… and I'm not sure how to phrase this exactly, I need you to find _connections_ with those on this planet. You have not done so in the past, and I'm sorry if I've deprived you of that aspect of life. It wasn't fair to ask you to give it up."

"You didn't ask me to. You told me about what I could do if I accepted your offer and, even at 17, I knew that it was the right thing to do." Harry frowned slightly. "You don't need to apologise for that. Of course I miss it, but…" He paused in thought. "I don't know if I can _have_ those type of feelings any more. Let alone for a normal girl. Since then, there's only been one who's been anything more than a passing thought for me; I'm mortal, but at the same time I'm not.

"Hell," Harry gave a strained smile. "You chose me because I can't die like one of them. Say that I did live my life with one of the girls from my home Earth, my family would die and I wouldn't. I could make myself age if I wanted to, but it would never be more than an aesthetic change. How could I let myself be subjected to the pain of watching my loved ones age and die?" He asked the immortal next to him.

Death gave a weary sigh. Harry did not know what it meant, but a tear shone as though a diamond in the corner of her eyes and his arm wrapped around her shoulder on instinct. She may not want to talk to him about it, but he had to _try_ to comfort her.

Ther corners of her lips were tugged upwards again, and Death spoke. "I have a solution to that, Harry." The raven haired wizard's gaze held surprise. It was rare that Death used his name. "I will escort them here, upon their deaths." She said simply.

Harry was confused. Again. "I don't understand. I thought you were obligated to take them to the afterlife… And how would it solve the problem anyway?"

"I do as I choose," Death said. Summarising her freedom concisely. "And… if you are willing, I would grant you access to my domain. That way, if you ever choose to be done with the mortal world, you could live here. With… them. The women you woo." Harry was unable to label the expression on his immortal friend's face, or the strange hesitation in which she caught herself. He was rather certain, however, that it meant something different to what a human would be portraying.

"Wait," Harry lost that train of thought as he noticed something. "You said _them_ , but I assumed you meant any family I might have, or friends or something… are you expecting me to have a _harem_ or something?" His tone made it clear that he wasn't happy with the idea.

"Not a _harem_ , no… but you will fall for more than one of those on this Earth. And I know that you won't treat them as things, My Champion. You are not the type, and they will see that too." Harry wasn't so sure, and decided to settle on a healthy dose of skepticism on the subject. He _really_ doubted that any of these _superheroes_ , or heroines if the females were called that, could compare to the woman with whom he was infatuated. He was always hopeful that those feelings would fade, though; maybe one of these women would succeed where his occlumency failed. Very unlikely, but possible.

"You don't trust that I'm telling the truth," Death observed. "You will, though. I am certain that on this world you will finally find happiness." She did not sound certain.

"What are you talking about?" Harry asked. "I'm already happy."

"No you aren't," Death said. "You can't lie to me, Harry. Not after so long. I know you as well as you know yourself, and you cannot say that you truly believe that you are at peace."

He couldn't. Currently, Harry would say that he _was_ at peace. That he was content. Normally, though, he cursed his lot in life. Up until now he had been alone, never being able to form bonds because he would rarely be on one planet, or in one reality as he now suspected might be the case but had never cared to check, for more than a month. These meetings with Death were wonderful, but they were interspersed with agony and violence and hate and misery. Only in here did he feel safe, and only when he was safe could he feel happy.

Death stiffened. "It is time for you to go, My Champion. Our time is aligned with theirs, and events are moving to fruition. To be trusted by the Justice League, you must interfere."

"Wait, you haven't told me-" Harry's voice cut off abruptly as Death ran soft fingers over the Ankhs etched on the back of each of his hands. His world went black, and he went slack in his seat. The last thing he heard, though he would not remember it, was a voice finishing off his sentence.

"You did not tell him how to return, sister."

-()()-

"You did not tell him how to return, sister." Death made it clear that she had known her brother to be there the whole time by leaning down and pressing her lips to Harry Potter's cheek. Only then did she slowly turn.

"Hm." Death made a face. "Darn. I forgot." She would have to let him know later. "How are you today, Destiny?" She asked, as the blind man's head remained tilted towards the book chained to him.

"I am fine." He did not ask in return, for why would he? "He must know how to return."

Death took that seriously and with a thought a piece of paper appeared in her hand and writing spread across it. Then, she tucked it into the pocket of Harry's trousers.

"Okay?" Death asked her elder brother.

"Yes." He said. "Your loophole stands strong."

"It does," Death looked down at Harry. "He said it himself; you can't define Harry as mortal _or_ immortal. Not anymore."

"Correct." Destiny agreed. "But I would recommend acting on your desires soon, sister. He does not believe himself to be your equal."

"What does that mean?" Death was confused by that statement.

"That you must act soon, and tell him what you have done. I do not want you to be hurt." Destiny said, in a somber tone. Death's mind began to race as questions filled it, the primary among them being how long Destiny would class as _soon_. Harry would need to become used to this world before he'd be able to see her in it. Hopefully fifteen days would be soon enough. "Nor would I want you to miss this chance. You will not always have us."

"Don't you _know_ how it's going to end, brother?" Death asked, confused. Her brother knew virtually everything. About the past, present and future.

"He is unique," Destiny gave a minute shake of the head. "I can see the paths, but I do not know which your Champion will take."

Death looked down at Harry, smiled with some sorrow, and he vanished from her home. The effects had taken place, and he would be a force to be reckoned with even in this universe of godly beings.

"How are the others?" She asked.

"Interested." Destiny replied. Death was fairly certain that meant they were all watching her Champion closely. Then, she realised she would have to talk to them about her decision. Harry _would_ have more than just her. She had deprived him of enough and _forced_ him to take enough burdens on his shoulders that she would be happier the more joy was given to her Champion, and would not allow herself to be selfish. That being said, they might not understand that without an explanation on her part.


	2. Thanagarians

The image of a large, red haired woman sprang to mind as emerald eyes cracked open. It took Harry a moment to remember where he was, but that did nothing to explain where he was. Or why there was a planet above him. A stationary planet that wasn't moving.

It was embarrassing that ten seconds passed before the magic-wielder registered that the planet was a model, and Harry put it down to the grogginess that came with being sent from one world to the next. Not that it was especially important, especially in comparison to the situation at hand.

"Get away from him!" Harry moved his gaze, and found a dark-haired woman facing his way and yelling furiously. "You have no right!"

What was she on about? Who did she want Harry to get away from? For that matter, where the hell was he?

"Be quiet!" A different voice, though still female, barked back. Harry detected a slight accent, though he did not recognise the origin. "This male has been decreed an enemy of Thanagar. His very presence on this planet is a violation of our martial law and we are to take him into custody."

"You can't take away someone's freedom without just cause!" The first said, even as Harry looked to the second. Clearly she was one of the invaders. The armour she was wearing was certainly not human, considering there were wings protruding from the back and an avian-helmet covered any specific features of her face. "I won't stand for it!" Harry looked at the black haired woman, and saw that she had a look of genuine fury as a red haired man stood uncertainly behind her clutching a camera as though it was a life line.

"Then you, too, will be brought to our prison ship," Harry saw hints of a sneer below the helmet as the Thanagarian continued. "We have captured the strongest citizens of your planet without issue, I fail to see what resistance _you_ can offer."

The black haired woman faltered as the hawk-woman hefted a sword. Harry would have brought a hand to his forehead at her stupidity, had his arm responded, though as her hesitation lasted but a moment.

"Superman won't let you get away with this!"

"Your 'man-of-steel' is even now being recaptured. He and his fellow _Justice Leaguers_ willingly entered our trap, and our full forces are converging on them at the build-site. He cannot help you, Lois Lane."

"You won't beat him!" The now name Lois announced. The Thanagarian smirked.

"Perhaps he will surrender upon seeing that we have you captive. He cares deeply for you, does he not?" Then, she looked at the man behind Lois. "He cares about Mr Olsen as well, based on the wristwatch he is nervously fingering." Harry noted that the orange haired man, with many freckles, had a red and blue watch between his fingers. He didn't understand the significance, or why the man was clutching it as though he expected it to save him from the aliens, and dismissed it as unimportant.

"Seize them." She continued. Two of her men moved forwards to grab the humans, and only then did the officer look down at Harry. Her eyes widened as she found his open, and she opened her mouth again to give another order. The words did not escape before a blue jet of light slammed into her chestplate, and the woman was thrown into the air. Harry shoved himself to his feet even as the magic in his blood thrummed, his center supplying the energy.

The symbol on the underside of his right forearm glowed as magic was channelled through him and out in the form of an attack.

The Thanagarian flipped end over end even as Harry threw himself forwards and his weight crashed into one of the soldiers. Both of them fell to the ground, and Harry pressed his hand against the man's skull. The palm shone scarlet, and the avian-man went slack.

By this time, the next of them had comprehended what was going on, and lightning crackled over the axe he was wielding.

" _Stupefy_!" Harry barked, and a jet of red light shot from his palm at the Thanagarian. The raven haired man stayed on the floor, because his balance was still out of whack. The spell splashed against bronze armour, and had no effect. Harry blinked, and the alien closed the distance by half. " _Manu_!" Harry's hand glowed, and the roof of the Daily planet rippled. A stone hand erupted from it, and took the Thanagarian off guard as fingers closed around him. Then, Harry closed his own fist, and made a throwing motion. The first followed his movement, and the soldier was flung into the model planet. He fell to the floor, unconscious, and the next Thanagarian made his move.

A mace slammed into the cement hand, and the Thanagarian's face twisted into surprise as it shattered easily. Harry wasn't shocked; the limb had been temporary and unfortified, serving as a distraction for his left hand to flick. A few metres away, his rucksack opened. A black matte object jumped out and into the man's waiting hand and Harry lined up iron sights on the next soldier.

The Sig Sauer P226 bucked in Harry's hand, his strength far from full. " _Shit_!" Harry yelled, even as the bullet hit the alien's chestplate, and Harry shoved forwards with his right hand; later he wouldn't know what he had been trying to achieve. His reasons were made clear, as the bullet exploded, and the Thanagarian was flung against a wall like a ragdoll.

Harry was on his feet a moment later, and ran to the man with an awkward gait. He fell to his knees next to the Thanagarian, and pressed his fingers against his neck. The pulse was steady and strong. It would not be the first time Harry killed, but he tried to avoid it when unnecessary. And this would not have been necessary.

The two sent after Lois and Jimmy attacked in union, targeting the much greater threat. They were intelligent in their assumption that Harry would not be suited to close-quarters combat. They were wrong, but it was sensible given what they had seen of his fighting style thus far.

"Yah!" The taller of the two aliens by three inches yelled, as he swung his axe at the target. Harry dropped into a crouch, and the swing passed overhead. Then, he pushed himself upright and drove his fist into his unprotected abdomen. It certainly was a design flaw that the armour simply crossed across their chest. Harry's stunner only hit it by chance, and the bullet imbued with an exploding curse would have hit bare flesh had he been able to aim properly. _That_ would have killed the man without a doubt.

The attacker doubled over with a gasp. Harry drove his knee upwards, and the helmet bounced off with a _clang_. The unnamed Thanagarian jerked to full height again and stumbled backwards. Harry spun the SIG Sauer in his hand and whipped his fist forwards. The butt of the pistol walloped the man on the head, denting the helmet, and he fell to the floor.

Harry punched out, and a bolt of red light struck the man on bare flesh. The alien passed out.

"Look out!" Lois cried. Harry's eyes snapped to her, and found her staring at the spot behind him.

The remaining Thanagarian thrust his sword into the wizard's back.

Harry gasped.

The alien swore.

Harry spun, and slammed his elbow into the soldier's helmet. The Thanagarian stumbled away, and Harry took a hold of his helmet and _twisted_. Not hard enough to snap the man's neckThe man fell to the floor, unconscious as his fellows, and Harry moved his hands to his lower back.

"Well that's new." He muttered, finding unbroken skin. This must have been the sturdiness Death was giving him to survive the coming fights. Useful. The flash of a camera pulled him to the present, and Harry looked to the pair of captives. "I have a bad feeling about this…" He said, upon seeing the predatorial expression on Lois' face.

"Tell me," She stepped forwards. "What is your name?"

"Harry…" He replied uncertainly.

"No, no," Lois shook her head. "What's your superhero name?"

"My _what_ name?"

"Superhero," Why was the woman looking at him like he was slow? "You know, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman…"

"You have a bat-man? And… what, a man who likes soup?" The closest Harry could figure was the series of titled he'd had bestowed onto him over his lives.

"... How have you not heard of Superman? Even in Britain, he's the most famous individual in the world…" Lois Lane's expression was one suggesting that she thought him a moron.

"I… I…" Harry thought hard. Clearly the differences between his Earth and this one were too great to bluff his way through. They had alien invaders and… superheroes, whatever that meant. Heroes of some kind, presumably. Telling her he was from an alternate Earth might go down strangely. He could suggest something along those lines, though, before ducking out of the conversation. "I'm not from 'round here. Apologies, but I have to go. I have… uh, Superhero things to do." Harry's backpack flew to his hand, and the raven haired man rose into the air. Lois backed away, as Harry quickly moved away from the building, hovering, and cast a banisher on the Daily Planet to propel himself away from the reporter.

"You didn't tell me your name!" He heard her call, and wondered briefly what would come of this method of arrival.

Probably not anything good.

-()()-

 **A New Hero?**

 **In the aftermath of the Thanagarian invasion, it seems that**

 **a new hero has appeared. One that is already gaining notoriety,**

 **in some circles, and praise in others. We are sorry to admit,**

 **here at the Daily Planet, that our best investigative journalists**

 **have failed to find anything on this mysterious sorcerer but**

 **in our contact with experts in the fields of the supernatural and**

 **superheroes, we have not found anyone who is aware of this**

 **hero. It is strange that this is the case, as the occultists are**

 **a typically close-knit community for the simple fact that their numbers**

 **are limited.**

 **At this stage, we are forced to draw the conclusion that he is not of this**

 **world. This reporter is not surprised for what human could stop a blade with**

 **their bare skin? Could he be of a similar origin to the hero of Metropolis?**

 **Superman, unfortunately, could not be reached for comment but I would not rule**

 **out the possibility. Superman's home planet has supplied us with**

 **many heroes already. It is logical that they may have given another.**

 **We here at the Daily Planet are offering a reward for any information that**

 **may allow us, and the others 'Harry' has saved, to thank this newest hero.**

 **Please contact us at** **DailyPlanet**

 **For more information, please visit /HeroHarry**

 **The page will be updated as information becomes available**

 **Article written by Lois Lane**

The article was tucked away in the corner of Page 3 of the newspaper. Harry wasn't surprised, given the far bigger news that had come at the same time as his arrival.

When the Thanagarians had left, riots had broken out in the streets of many major cities. Both in America and through the rest of the world. They were quelled quickly enough. He didn't know exactly how other countries went about it, and didn't particularly care, but what was interesting was that the Justice League, a team of unique individuals including Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman who Lois had referenced, had been such an incredible help in the US. In retrospect, it _was_ rather unbelievable that he hadn't heard of them.

The team was certainly revered. After they saved the planet yet again people had been unwilling to fight them, either because they didn't like the idea of hurting their saviors or because they didn't want to get in a fight with the incredibly powerful people. Harry couldn't say for sure.

During the riots, people had died. Not many, thanks to the help of Superheroes, cops and good samaritans, but they deserved a higher place than a loudmouthed reporter needing to be saved by a mystery-man. It wasn't, however, given as much media attention as the deaths caused by the Thanagarians, or the destruction. Some workers had been killed in the process of building their project. Some officials who had demanded that they leave had now been found dead. Some civilians had fought against them, after the heroes had been taken off guard and imprisoned, and the Thanagarians had not had any reason to keep them alive unlike the heroes, who they presumably would have found uses for.

Evidently, Harry's interference in the riots had not gone unnoticed. He had subdued the rioters he came across easily, stunners knocked them unconscious easily enough or disarmers removed the weapons they held.

He let the Justice League members deal with the more concentrated relief efforts. He would not have been able to work well with them. An individual interfering in the assistance of a team wouldn't be much help at all. Instead, Harry had stuck around Metropolis. The city seemed almost lost without Superman, and the police's best efforts had not been able to fill that void.

Particularly because an unreasonable number of Supervillains had decided to take advantage of the opportunity even as Superman and his fellows worked abroad. Several countries in Europe had appealed to the US for relief; the Thanagarians had felt that destroying monuments would be a suitable show of power towards the end. Superman and his superfriends were helping sift through the rubble looking for the missing.

Currently, Harry was just facing off against some mobsters. They had broken into the Metropolis Museum of Art, loaded up several paintings, presumably expensive, into a van and were currently trying and failing to escape.

No matter how much you revved the engine of a car, it wouldn't drive away when the wheels had been transfigured into cement blocks.

"What the fuck?!" One of them exclaimed angrily. "What's going on?!"

"Get out of the car!" Harry yelled back.

"What the-" One stuck his head out of the window. "Who the fuck are you?!" He demanded.

Harry's hand lit up in a scarlet glow. It leapt off and flew at the presented target, struck the man in the forehead, and he slumped over.

"Shit! What did you do?!"

"What did he do?!"

"He killed Kenny!"

"Bastard!" The rear door of the van slammed open, and one of the men leapt out with an AK-47. He swung it to aim at Harry, and found himself too late. A blue light caught him in the chest and lifted him off his feet. Next, the man slammed against the closed door and his head _thumped_ into it.

" _Wingardium Leviosa_!" Harry hollered with his hand extended, and the van shot into the air.

"Ahh!" A gangster yelled.

"What the fuck?!" Another echoed the sentiment.

Yet another made an unintelligible noise, as he fell out of the van. He had also been in the back, and failed to catch hold of one of the doors as the van went vertical.

A civilian screamed as Harry watched him plummet. A curator screamed as the paintings followed.

" _Aresto Momentum_." The wizard muttered, and the man's descent slowed. Then stopped. The mobster whimpered as he hovered in mid air and Harry caught the paintings with his magic and let them drift to the ground.

" _Incarcerous_." Harry spoke, and ropes sprung from his fingertips to bind the man still in flight. They wrapped around him and he slowly fell to the floor to rest next to his unconscious friend. Harry's forearm tingled, at the anticlimactic fight. They didn't give much of a challenge and so he walked away as the van changed into chains and restrained the remaining gangsters.

He ignored the people taking pictures of him on their phones, heading for the bay between the marvellous city and its gloomy neighbour. They needed him more there than here, even if they still had their resident superhero.

Harry crossed the bridge without incident, and began to head to the epicentre of crazy.

-()()-

"Clark," A voice broke through the darkness of the Batcave. "Is Lois right about this?"

"About what?" Superman asked. Had Batman not been watching on a live-feed, he would not have heard any hint of exertion in the man's tone as he lifted a massive slab of concrete off some trapped road-workers.

"Have you found another Kryptonian and brought him here?" Bruce clarified. His own voice was serious. He would not be happy if this was the case. It was bad enough that he had to look after Supergirl, Bruce wasn't going to become Clark's babysitting service. And, of course, a new superpowered individual could prove dangerous. But mostly the babysitting.

"What?" Clark frowned on the video. "No, why would she think that?"

"Apparently someone saved her from Thanagarians after she started a fight with them." Bruce had a copy of Lois' original article open on another screen. She had written a detailed description of the event.

"They attacked Lois?!" Clark's grip tightened, and the concrete crumbled. "What?! Why didn't you tell me?!"

"Because you were needed in Europe, and she made it out unscathed; it wouldn't do to have you rush back and leave the job unfinished. So you don't know this mystery hero?"

"No. I don't think so, anyway. What does he look like?"

"Six foot, give or take a few inches and somewhat broad," Batman _also_ had a picture of Harry up, taken from one of Metropolis' many surveillance cameras. "Caucasian. Black hair. Thin and muscular."

"Hm. Doesn't ring any bells." Clark got back to work. "Any discerning features?"

"Yes. A lightning-bolt shaped scar on his forehead. Two tattooed Ankhs on his hands, and an image on the underside of each of his forearms. One looks to be a burning tree, the other a grim-reaper's scythe."

"Nope. I don't think I've met him." The Kryptonian answered. "How's Kara?" He changed the subject.

"Fine." Bruce responded curtly.

"Oh? Is she giving you any trouble?"

"Some. She has less patience than you, and is rubbing off on Barbara." Batgirl was staying in the mansion for a time, to prevent Kara from destroying it for the lack of distraction. She frequently commented that it was stupid for them to be so rich yet so boring. That combined with the fact that Bruce could pay for repairs to encourage her immature behaviour.

"Well, she shouldn't be with you for much longer." Clark wanted her under supervision, as she had been up in Metropolis already but he had assured Bruce that he'd return soon. "Ma's looking after Pa. She didn't have anywhere to go and I didn't want to leave her alone in the city."

"So you've said."

Superman sighed. "How is the situation, then?" He changed topic again.

"As to be expected. There are still instances of looting, but they're few and far between. Very few villains are at large that weren't before."

"The Joker?"

"He appears to be… laying low."

"Laying low?" Superman's voice was skeptical. Batman understood why; the Joker had never shown before that he knew the meaning of _laying low_.

"Seemingly so."

"Don't you think it's more likely that he's planning something?"

"Almost certainly."

The two fell silent for a time, before Superman continued.

"Have you received any more replies to our inquiries."

"Yes. Elongated Man, Vigilante and Orion have all accepted. Elongated Man was extremely enthusiastic in doing so."

"That's good to hear. They'll make good additions to the League."

"Perhaps."

"Ever the optimist, aren't you Batman?"


	3. Gotham

Harry cringed at the smell that greeted him as he stepped out of the alley he had stayed in overnight, in his portable residence. The air was rancid, and he briefly arrived at the conclusion that Gotham was, quite literally, a shithole.

This decision was short-lived because Harry realised something. It had not smelled near this bad the night before, and that was strange.

How would the scent of an area change so badly in the time between him retiring and waking? Could the sewage system have ruptured in this area? No. No, that felt wrong.

It didn't smell like faeces, Harry was sad to say that he had spent a month of his life on a planet with an open sewage system and the memory stuck with him even now. It smelled more like a… a stink bomb. An extremely large stink bomb, but a stink bomb nonetheless.

That was an odd idea. It stank, forgive the pun, of something the Trickster would come up with. Harry believed that that generally harmless villain stayed in central city, though, so what was going on?

Harry felt a tickle run down his spine, and decided to err on the side of caution. This felt _bad_ to him, and so he wouldn't go in to whatever was coming unprepared.

Reaching behind himself, he drew the gun from the waist of his black cargo trousers, loaded a round into the chamber, and felt the magic around the bullets to check that he had loaded the right magazine.

Satisfied with the piercing-imbued projectiles, he passed it into his left hand, favouring the right for casting as even now his magic was a bit too _eager_ when channeled through that rucksack on his back drew close to him, shrank slightly, and the zip vanished until he would need it again. Harry could open it with a thought, so this was better for combat situations.

Harry set off Northwards. If something was going on, he was going to bet that Arkham would be somehow involved.

As he walked the streets, Harry's nerves were set on edge. This was rarely the case any more; he'd gone through enough to harden the weakest willed of men. But this was equally enough to put the toughest of men on edge, for the city was deserted.

Devoid of life.

 _Empty_.

Harry saw nobody as he walked through the dirty streets. The pavements were deserted, and the cars and busses that had been driving before whatever happened happened had been stopped, opened, and left. Like all of their owners had suddenly decided to walk uncaringly away. Or maybe it would make more sense, on the surface, if they had run. If they had all remembered a desperate need to be elsewhere.

Harry moved to one such vehicle. The most interesting of them, in fact. He chose the car because of the blood across its bonnet and door as well as the ground below.

Harry looked at it with no small curiosity, trying to understand how the left side window had smashed so marvellously when no damage had been done anywhere else and the door was open. What reason would someone have had to break it? And how on Earth did they bleed so much in doing so?

The glass crunched under foot as he stepped closer and pondered.

The glass on cars was designed to shatter into as many pieces as possible upon impact, so that when there was a car crash a large shard could not impale the driver or passenger. That meant the injuries couldn't be particularly deep. So it must have been one of a few areas.

The wrists bled that much, but were not an option unless the man or woman hit the glass _with_ them or deliberately dragged them along the remaining shards on the bottom of the metal frame. The ankles would be even less likely.

Similarly, the joints had many arteries in them but in the protected crooks of both elbows and knees. It would be difficult to open wounds on them in this situation.

The armpits were out. The veins and arteries were easy to sever with a knife, and would spurt blood at impressive volumes, but the glass shards were too small to get past the _puit_. Likewise, the flesh of the thighs would require deep cuts to bleed substantially.

Harry supposed that a crazy enough man, and they had many of those in Gotham, might decide to cut his penis open on the glass, but unless he left it sat on the door it wasn't likely to spray blood over such a large area. That could explain why everyone ran, but Harry had a feeling that the more logical explanation would be the correct one.

Why the person was doubled over, he had no idea, but whoever it was must have run head first into the pane. Wounds to the face, especially the forehead, bled _a lot_. Lots of it had to travel upwards, and the body shrank dramatically around the skull and so there were nickable vessels in the area. That explained the many droplets Harry could see, and the neck corresponded with the heavier streams running down the door itself and staining the white paint. Where cuts to the forehead would give small streams that, when stood straight-backed proved more a hindrance than anything else because they removed the most-used sense, wounds to the neck would be waterfalls of blood. A person with one would bleed out and de if not treated.

With that in mind, Harry began to follow the trail of blood.

He found the man soon. He was average in every see-able way. Average height. Average build. Neither pale nor tanned. Brown hair and brown eyes. A brown suit that was a size too big. Off the rack, Harry assumed. Black shoes. The white shirt would have been average too, before blood stained it.

And a psychotic grin stretched across his face.

"Joker venom?" Harry asked no one in particular, as the man on the ground gave a wheezing, pained chuckle and weakly grabbed for his leg. Harry stepped away, and raised his right hand. A healthy green glow spread from it to the man, and his bloodflow slowed. Then, Harry stunned him and went on his way. Hopefully the man wouldn't die, but Harry was more worried about the hundreds if not thousands that had kept going.

Soon, Harry heard a ruckus in the distance. What the voices were shouting he could not discern, but they were impassioned and loud. Promising.

Harry quickly made his way towards the noise, and a half-minute later they were clear as day to him as his magic rectified his sense's failing.

"NO MORE HEROES!"

"WE WANT THE BAT!"

"NO MORE HEROES!"

"WE WANT THE BAT!"

"DOWN WITH HEROES!"

"WE WANT THE BAT!"

"DOWN WITH HEROES!"

"WE WANT THE BAT!"

Harry slowed, with a thoughtful expression. Obviously, the Joker had orchestrated this. Even without the venom, he was the obvious example of having a sick obsession with Batman. Harry did not, and would not, understand how the villain had changed his venom to warp these people's minds accordingly. He did know, however, that the Clown had created similar effects before.

Harry stopped a street away from the _activists_. If they caught sight of him, no doubt they would attack. If they attacked, Harry would be in trouble. He could not beat a crowd of that size without lethal force. If he was to use a wide-effect stunner, he could knock them all down, but not without a cost. At the very best, he would cause a few of them brain damage. At worst, he would stop a few of their hearts.

Not a good idea.

Instead, Harry turned his gaze to the rooftops. With the green-grey fog that the Joker had caused sitting over the area in a heavy cloud, he would have cover-aplenty. It was simple enough to fly in a straight line.

Or it would have been, had a white, blue and red object not fallen out of the sky and landed in front of him. And started making retching sounds.

Harry approached the figure, as slim shoulders shook and a quiet voice moaned and cursed under her breath.

"What the…" Harry peered down at the girl's shirt as she turned over, and the symbol upon it. "You don't look like Superman… heh, that's a bit of an understatement. So why're you wearing his crest?" He called the information he'd gleaned from Google to mind, and thought. He hadn't come across this girl in particular in his research… but, come to think of it. "Oh, he has a cousin or something, doesn't he? Supergirl, if I recall correctly." Harry was of the opinion that they were very uncreative titles, but ignored the thought in favour of kneeling down next to her.

"Now, what's going on?" He wondered aloud, and pressed his right index and middle fingers against her throat. He found a pulse, strong and steady, and nodded silently. "Hm." Then, he placed the back of his hand against her forehead. And promptly pulled it back. "Bloody- Wow, quite the fever."

But she must have been flying before whatever this was took effect. There weren't many things that could have inspired these symptoms in a normal person, let alone a Super-person. Harry made a soft noise of realisation.

"Ah. The Joker Venom." He frowned at the sky. "I wonder how he made it work on you…" Harry didn't have any idea, and stopped thinking it through soon. "Well, it must be airborne for you, too. It's a gas, after all." Harry waved his hand over the lower half of her face, and pale blue sparks sprang from his fingers. They formed a bubble, and Supergirl stilled. "I guess it counts as a poison, though." Why else wouldn't it be affecting Harry, but be affecting an alien of the same nature as Superman? It must be down to the Basilisk bite.

"Feel better," He wished her well, assuming she was tough enough to survive until she woke even in an unconscious state. "I've got a job to do."

Harry hefted his gun again, and rose into the air. His magic gripped the building that was his target, and Harry pulled himself towards it. A few moments later, he touched down on concrete.

The raven haired wizard dropped to a crouch, and hurriedly moved to the far edge of the flat rooftop; not wanting to waste time as the chants spontaneously became interspersed with crazed yells, screams and cries.

He peered over the lip of the roof's edge, and found out why. The mob was no longer organised. It was a frenzy of limbs in the centre, like the mosh pit at a rowdy concert. The Joker Venom was, from Harry's understanding, meant to cause insanity and those in the middle were violently psychotic. Even as he watched, one man in a high-class suit, a banker or a lawyer perhaps, leapt onto a man in sweats and began to _pummel_ him. Unscarred fists slammed into the downed man's face and temple again and again. Blood sprayed from the nose and mouth. The skin over the knuckles broke, and the two men's blood mixed even as wails of anger and pain merged also.

Harry frowned as he saw this, but what could he do against hundreds of them? That was the size of this crowd, and based on the yells in the distance there were many other groups. This might have just been the first he came across. Or something led him here?

After a moment't thought, Harry frowned. In that moment, he considered sending them off after a conjured animal. Hopefully that would have cleared the way for him. He dismissed it, though, upon realising that people would be trampled if he was to do that. That would be a painful way to go, and he would avoid it if at all possible.

That just meant that he'd have to go with stealth.

Harry ran a hand over his short-cut hair, and disguised himself as his environment. The cloak would be significantly more thorough, but it would be made less effective by what he needed to be invisible for.

One thing Harry had noticed about flying was that it was bloody difficult to do it when he couldn't see himself. Even only to the extent of being camouflaged. And, so, he couldn't do it the normal way or he'd end up mistiming it and landing on the street. He could do half of it, though, and so the wizard moved backwards and gave himself a run up while tucking the handgun back into his trousers' waist.

Harry stopped with one leg behind him, bent ever so slightly, and the other bent below to give him as quick a start as possible. His magic flared as he pushed himself forwards, and Harry failed to notice that the ground below cratered ever so slightly as he pushed off at a speed greater than what he would have achieved even in the most recent world. His muscles were more saturated the longer it was since the incident, as his core constantly attempted to refill. The adverse effects had largely ceased, and Harry was very glad that they were now few and far between.

As Harry rushed towards the edge, he directed his magic to his fingers and his arms tingled. Then his forearms burned. The pain spread to his fingertips before Harry ejected the magic, and it _punched_ the rooftops and flung him into the sky. This time, he was aware of the damage done in his wake, but that was to be expected using his magic's rawer form.

Harry kept quiet through some great effort, as he was launched into the Joker's fog, and gritted his teeth.

Apparently, he had overshot by quite a bit. It was hard to predict the effects of the magic he called a Banisher's cousin. It was all about the roof's integrity. Had he pushed with less force, it was entirely possible the building would have simply caved in beneath him; by the very nature of magic it assumed the caster did not want to be tossed into the sky. That was why he had to use this form of magic instead of an overpowered banisher. No matter how powerful that had been, Harry would have at most gotten the backlash of the magical power and been thrown backwards a few metres. A Banisher was meant to move its target away from the caster, not the other way around.

Now, had Harry had any idea of the layout of Gotham, or a clear view of what was coming, what happened next would not have come to be. As it was, he did not have either. And so his first clue that he was approaching a tall building was the shadow in the fog, which took him a moment to process.

"Fuck!" Harry's arms snapped forwards, and his magic burned as it hastened to obey. If Harry had been less accustomed to pain, it would have been agony. As it was, he just gritted his teeth again as the fire pushed through his bones, veins and flesh. Once upon a time, it was only his skin that hurt. That was because the symbols through which he had channelled his magic were etched into skin. Not any more, though. They were extremely supernatural, and had bonded to him utterly. He supposed that that made him a proper agent of Death, even if he had apparently been dismissed. Death represented life as well.

It was stupid of Harry to try to use the raw-Banisher again. It should have been clear to him what would happen when his magic met the glass, but he did not think before acting.

The glass for which he was heading shattered when Harry was 10 metres away. He tried using _Aresto Momentum_ , and there was no sensation of fire, but the spell failed to act in time. If it slowed him at all, the effect made very little difference.

Harry passed through the empty floor-to-ceiling pane, and hit the ground with an _oof_.

-()()-

"Eep!" Harleen Quinzel exclaimed, as a man crashed into her room. Or the room she had claimed, anyway.

She had not been having a good day.

Mr J was ignoring her, as he brooded over the new hero interfering in Gotham. _Harry_ had not done any heroism just yet, but Joker was not happy about him stealing the Bat's thunder. He insisted that Gotham was _Batman_ 's turf, and that this newbie had no right to be here. No… wait, he'd said "Newbies", not newbie. He had been angry enough, already, that Supergirl was around, and that was why he'd mixed Kryptonite into the formula of his new-and-improved toxin.

Harley's once scientific mind wondered briefly how the new arrival was unaffected by the venom. Then, she stopped caring and moved on to more pressing matters; dealing with Harry, for example. Hopefully, Mr J would be happy to see him defeated even if it was by her. Or the thugs on this floor, who she called in with the push of a button before sneakily grabbing her mallet as the black haired man slowly stood, and brushed glass off his clothes.

-()()-

Harry shook his head, and small shards of glass fell out of his cropped hair. If the locks had been longer, there would have been more but they would have failed to cut him as well, Harry believed. Quite strongly, since all evidence suggested that Death's change to his body this time had take quite well. His clothes had several tears in them, as the window's glass had broken into some large shards, but the skin beneath was unbroken.

As he poked his side, where one such injury should have been, Harry forgot to check where he was. Or whether there were any enemies in the vicinity.

"Ha!" Harry first realised that there was someone in the room with him when he heard a woman's voice yell out in triumph. Then, something slammed into the back of his head, and he was sent to the floor in a daze. Then, a door slammed open and Harry heard heavy footsteps. "Sorry boys. I guess I didn't need your help after all. You can tie him up, though, and I'll take him up to Puddin'."

Harry heard the men grunt, and then the shuffle of footsteps come towards him. He recovered from the head blow far faster now that he would have in the past, and placed his palms against the carpeted floor.

He heard a grunt of confusion reminiscent of two lumbering trolls of school children, dumb as dirt, from his first life. The man must have pointed at the phenomenon because another sound followed.

"He's movin'." The second told the woman.

Harry leapt to his feet a moment later, ignoring the slight unease he equated to a headrush, and his left hand went behind him even as his right shot out and sent a bolt of light in the direction of the grunters. _Flipendo_ was a strange spell for Harry to use so frequently, he'd learned it as one of his earliest spells, but it was definitely useful. Useful, as the thug was thrown off his feet, flipped over in mid air, and landed face first on the ground.

Harry's right hand snapped out again as his left drew the Sig Sauer from his waistband, and a red bolt caught another of the five thugs Harry counted in the stomach. The man went down, unconscious, and Harry stepped forwards towards the next man. He ducked under a haymaker, and his palm glowed scarlet. Harry struck the man with an open hand punch in the chest. He vaguely registered that a rib or two snapped under the strength of the blow as the _Stupefy_ took effect and the man fell to the ground.

The fourth man found a gun levelled on him as he levelled a shotgun on Harry. _Blam! Blam! Blam!_ The bullets Harry fired each caught him in the right shoulder, in a close grouping. They tore a hole in the flesh that would take extensive work to heal. The man fell, spinning from the stopping force of the bullets, and screamed.

Harry found the last of the thugs on him as the woman swung her hammer again. He noted that the last man was massive, a few inches short of seven foot, before he ducked around the man's bulk and shoved him into the path of the swinging mallet. It only stuck him in the shoulder, but Harry heard the _snap_ as the bone broke and wrote him off as out of the fight.

By the time the man fell onto the floor, Harry had his gun levelled on the woman, and raised an eyebrow at the sight.

If he remembered correctly, Harley Quinn was the sidekick of the Joker. The outfit she wore from the neck down matched her known attire of a red and black Harlequin's outfit, but her face was bare. The pale young woman's eyes widened at the sight of the gun's barrel, and the man aiming at her, and she froze with her eyes boring into Harry. Harry wondered briefly why she was staring at him like that, before speaking.

"Where is the Joker?" Harry asked her.

"I-I won't give him up!" She said, in her Jersey accent. Her voice wavered minutely. "I'd neva betray Mistah J!"

"So he's on a higher floor?"

"What?!" Harley's eyes bulged. "I didn't say that!"

"No, but you've confirmed it now. If you aren't going to give me any more information without serious persuasion, I don't have any reason to keep you conscious." He raised his right hand.

"Wait! Don't-"

" _Stupefy_." The woman's eyes rolled back in her head, and she fell to the floor. At the same time, Harry heard a _thud_ come from above. He frowned, and moved on. As he went, the wizard scooped up three small pieces of glass and closed his fist around them.. When he opened it again, they were bullets and he quickly loaded them into the SIG. It was better to have twenty rounds than seventeen, after all. And when fully loaded, and counting the bullet in the chamber, the gun carried twenty.

Harry quickly climbed the stairs of the building, while keeping an eye out for booby-traps. Then, he stopped suddenly upon hearing the sound of mad laughter coming from down the hall. He approached the sound.

"HAHAHAHA!" A man's voice, sadistic and high-pitched, reached him after the laughter. The Joker was talking very loudly. "I was doing it for YOU! He's going to spoil our FUN, how do you not see that?!"

Harry slowed down, as a floorboard beneath his feet creaked. The psychotic clown didn't seem to notice.

"Oh, don't be like that! You must appreciate my intention at least! So what, if I killed a few people?! It's not important in the long run! But him taking me away from you?! That IS!"

Harry frowned. It sounded like Joker was talking to somebody in there. Had Batman arrived, or was the clown off on one again?

"So let me d-OW! Don't _do_ that! There's no need for violence. FIne! FIne, I'll tell you how to fix it, are you happy?! Go to the nozzle over there… NO! No, not that one! That one will kill us all!" He exclaimed suddenly. "I'm just messing with ya, it is that one. Or is it?! Maybe I'm wrong, and that one will blow us and all of Gotham to smithereens!"

Harry's eyes widened, as the gas seemed to thin outside the corridor's window.

"Oh, poo. Spoilsport, how'd you know?"

Harry heard a _tzz_ inside the room, and found himself confused about what had just happened as the Joker fell silent.

The raven haired wizard decided that it was a bad position he'd put himself in. He had no idea what was going on, and needed to take whoever was in there by surprise. To do that…

" _Bombarda._ " Harry said, and the door and its frame exploded into fragments of debris.

A black… object flew out of the resulting cloud of dust, and Harry ducked to avoid it. Then, he brought the gun to bear on roughly where it had come from, and fired a warning shot at the bottom of the cloud. After the gunshot, Harry simply waited for something to happen. Not for the first time, he was thankful that over the years his ears and eyes had adapted to the frequent gunfire, often in confined spaces. That meant the ringing was minimal and his vision was unimpaired so that he could catch any signs of an incoming attack that happened to come.

And, so, Harry dodged to the side as another projectile came his way. It hit the wall behind him, and revealed itself to be a smoke bomb of some kind. The gas reached him, and Harry smelled something strange in the smoke. Like… burned sugar, for some reason. Harry turned his attention back to the room without a door, and found Batman charging at him.

"Wait!" Harry yelled, as the hero swung for him. Harry narrowly dodged it, even with the enhanced speed he possessed. Then, he found a grey-clad elbow slamming into his nose, and stumbled back. "Stop! I'm not-" Harry stumbled out of the way of Batman as the hero aimed a punch at his abdomen. "Your enemy! My name's Harry, I'm here trying to help put a stop to whatever the hell's going on!" Batman stopped, and white eyes narrowed. Then, his stance relaxed. Not entirely, Harry noted, but far more than the fighting stance he had had moments before.

"How are you here?" Batman asked.

"Here? I came through the window… is that really one of the things you find implausible? That I would be able to get into the building?"

"How are you _conscious_?" The black-clad superhero specified.

"Oh, I'm immune to this sort of thing." Harry answered promptly.

"Hm. And did you find anything of note as you entered?"

"Yeah. A woman dressed as a harlequin and five of their hired help. I took care of all of them, but three of the guys will need medical attention." Harry thought for a moment. "Actually, two _will_ need it, and two might."

"What did you do?" Batman asked, suspiciously, as he looked pointedly at Harry's gun. The wizard flicked the safety on, and tucked it into his waistband.

"I only shot one of them. In the shoulder, too, so he should be fine as long as he gets to a hospital in the near future. My bullets went straight through, so the surgery won't be at all complicated. The other one who will need it got hit by the woman's mallet and I heard some of the bones in his arm break. I broke another's ribs, and maybe another's nose or jaw. I didn't check, but he landed on his face." Harry explained.

"The emergency services will know to come here, but I will cauterise the gunshots," Batman said, seemingly for his own benefit. "After the riots, others will be prioritised."

"Is the Joker in there?" Harry asked, nodding to the room Batman had just exited. The bigger man confirmed it, and Harry frowned. He looked at the caped crusader, then the room, and then back again and decided this wasn't the time to start. Even if it was the Joker, Batman would see it as an unjust execution. He refused to kill, Harry knew. "Hey, I saw Supergirl fall out of the sky a while back. I gave her clean air, but I don't know what the residual effect of the gas will be." Harry shrugged. "She was… a mile-ish in that direction? Maybe less, I'm not sure how far I… flew, before arriving here."

Batman nodded, and then lifted his hand to his ear. It only paused for a moment as Harry vanished in a _crack_ , and arrived back in the centre of Gotham. He had been quite near Arkham, predictably, and did not feel like walking. Or flying, for that matter.

Now, Harry had to figure out where Bruce Wayne's mansion was, exactly.

-()()-

Kara Zor-El was in a huff.

She'd only been trying to help, yet Bruce had contacted her cousin. The Justice League's relief effort had concluded this morning and so he had been on his way back even as the call arrived. Now, he and Batman were stood across the cave from her talking in low tones. She would have been insulted that they forgot she could still hear them, but for the fact that they intended it to be this way.

"If it wasn't for this new hero, she could have died." Bruce told her cousin. "The Kryptonite in her lungs was only been removed by forcing her to vomit. If it had entered her bloodstream…"

"I know, Bruce. I'll behaving words with her about being so needlessly reckless in the future. Ma and Pa would have been devastated if _that_ had come to pass." Okay, Kara _knew_ that that was only for her benefit. How was she meant to know the clown had a Kryptonite weapon?! "It was idiotic of her to charge in like that, especially after you specified she should stay put."

"It was. Even if the fog had not affected her, I expect that her appearance would have made the mobs even worse. It would have led to further frenzy, giving them something apparent to fear." Batman explained the situation. He had explained earlier in the conversation that the Joker Venom had driven the people into a place where they would afraid of damn near anything, including superheroes, and that the fear would then translate into anger, and a need to commit violence. Neither of the senior superheroes had seemed as surprised as Supergirl that the Joker had achieved this, so Kara assumed that she was simply missing something. Either he was much smarter than she had realised, or he had an ally in a talented chemist.

Superman sighed. "Hopefully that will change soon."

"Has she agreed to join, then?" Batman asked, as a follow up.

"She has." Of course, Kara knew what they were speaking of. She had been reluctant to join the Justice League, but her time here with Barbs had convinced her that it could be worth while to make some more friends. Especially since Barbs was thinking about travelling abroad for college; Kara didn't really have any friends at school. She had people that she got along with, and even hung out with on occasion, but none of them knew anything about her. Not really, anyway. "Some real world experience alongside more experienced heroes will hopefully help her mature without the hardship many of our number have had to go through."

Batman nodded, and fell silent for a moment. Superman spoke again.

"What do you think of contacting this Harry, to ask him to join?"

"We don't know enough about him to do so." Batman said, and Supergirl saw from the slight surprise on her cousin's face that he, too, was unused to hearing something so close to uncertainty in the man's voice.

"What did you think of him? Based on first impressions?"

"He seemed to have a different mindset. The attacks he used seemed mystical to me, so I intend to consult with Zatanna at her earliest convenience. But he was also using a gun." Supergirl knew how Batman felt about guns. "Based on the wounds of the man he shot, his bullets are mystical as well. I don't trust magical items."

"Is that all?" Clark raised an eyebrow.

"No. Not all." Batman seemed to frown under his mask. "I believe he wanted to kill the Joker."

"Oh." Superman nodded slowly, while Kara frowned. "Did he kill any of the others?"

"No."

"Hopefully that was the exception, and not the rule, then." Superman theorised. "It's understandable that the Joker could be an exception."

Batman nodded, as did Kara. Then, a new voice sounded inside the cave.

"Well, isn't this gloomy?"


	4. Meeting the League

**Here's another chapter of The Chaotic Nature of Life. I hope you enjoy it.**

 **Oh, and while there's been a largely positive response to this (thanks for that by the way!) I had a reviewer criticise me for things that will be explained later in the story. This always happens in stories, but I would ask that you be patient because I won't give answers about such things without a very good reason before it's explained in the story itself. I believe this is the case with most authors, in fact. And, yes, I'm purposefully vague on occasion.**

 **And I own nothing of either universe.**

As Kara's eyes widened and her head snapped around at superspeed to find the source of the voice, Batman demonstrated his own abilities by twisting towards the sound and, with the same movement, snapping his arm out and launching a batarang at the intruder in question.

"Jeez," The person said, and Kara watched him sway to the side and avoid the attack as the batarang passed an inch from his face. "That's not very nice."

The man, Harry, Kara quickly deduced, held his hands up in a sign of peace. Batman's eyes stayed narrow, and Harry grinned.

"Oh, right. You've probably seen what I can do unarmed, right? Sorry 'bout that, Mr. Wayne." While Kara's eyes widened noticeably at the use of this title, and her cousin's minutely, Batman did not look surprised. He did, however, ask.

"How did you discover my secret identity?"

"Oh, please," Harry shook his head. "It's not exactly difficult. To be Batman, you'd obviously have to be rich. The gadgets you use must cost a pretty penny. I googled rich guys in the world, and you were right up there on the list. Of all of them, you were one of a dozen young enough to be suitable. Of those rich enough to be the Batman, you were one of few built enough for the job. I think there were five including you that I decided would be strong enough.

"Then, I researched all of you, looking for times you could have learned all that ninja stuff. That took the list down to two. You live in Gotham, Oliver Queen lives in Starling city. I put my money on you, and came to check out your grounds. The lack of workers here helped support it being you runnin' around dressed like a bat, and then I found this place. And, again, I will say that it's gloomy as hell."

Batman didn't say a thing.

"I suppose you could have been funding someone else, but that wasn't very likely. You want to put a stop to needless crime if you can, after… well, I don't need to tell you that. You lived it. But you wouldn't trust that duty to someone else when you could do it yourself, so... all in all, it was a safe bet." Harry turned a smirk on Superman. "Should I guess yours now?"

"What?" Superman looked genuinely shocked at the idea that Harry might know his identity. "How could you possibly know _mine_?" Kara, too, was baffled. Their glasses were kryptonian tech designed to prevent people from making the connection.

"Eh. You had to be close to Lois Lane, and all I knew about her was that she worked at the Daily Planet. I checked who was vacant on that day, and Clark Kent was on the list. Of those on the list, he was the one who most frequently worked with she and Jimmy Olsen. That and you being a very big guy made it pretty easy to connect the dots."

Superman blinked.

"I don't know yours, though." Harry turned to look at Kara, and the girl got her first good look at the young man. He looked to be a few years older than her, excluding her time in stasis. First, she noticed his brilliant emerald eyes, deep enough to get lost in and, after a handful of moments lost in them, forced herself to look elsewhere. He had messy black hair that hung slightly in a fringe to brush the top of his eyes. His nose looked like it had been broken before, but it had healed rather well. If it was crooked, even her super-sharp eyes could barely catch it. His face was slightly gaunt, she noted, as though he had not eaten as much as he needed in his childhood. But it just made his cheekbones more prominent. Her eyes lingered slightly on his blood red lips before tracing his jawline. Then, she looked at his torso and found herself disappointed to find his lean muscles covered by a brown leather jacket. Similarly, his lower body was hidden by loose black jeans and he wore combat boots on his feet.

All in all, it made Kara redden as she looked up and found Harry's emerald eyes watching her with a glint of amusement.

Superman recovered from his shock. "Ah. Yes, thank you for the help you gave my cousin," He said, a little awkwardly. "And, for that matter, Lois."

"No problem." Harry said, turning back to face the larger man. "It was easy to help Supergirl, and it seemed more to be Lois who gave me a hand. No idea what the bird-folk would have done with me, but I don't expect it'd have been anything good. She woke me up, and seemed ready to take them all alone just 'cause they were acting aggressively towards me."

"Still," Superman reasoned. "Lois would have been in trouble if you weren't there, and K-Supergirl may well have died."

"Okay. I'll accept your thanks if you get your friend there to stop glaring at me." The messy haired man nodded at Batman, who was far from happy that the stranger was here. "It's not like I told anyone. Hell, I've pointed out a flaw in your security. You do have mystics on this world, right?" Batman didn't respond, but Kara nodded the affirmative as Harry continued. "Well, one of them could get in without much difficulty." Batman's eyes narrowed again, but Kara was fairly certain that, this time, it was in thoughtful pondering.

"That is… true." Batman slowly nodded.

"I'd offer to shore it up for ya, but I don't think you'll trust me." Harry reasoned. Bruce didn't respond, so Harry continued. "Say," His eyes flicked to Superman. "Who would you say is the biggest threat to innocents on this planet?"

"I… huh?" Clark made a noise of confusion at the sudden change in topic.

"Y'know, who would be the most likely to commit genocide? Or mass murder, I'm not picky."

"I don't… I'm not sure why you're asking."

Harry sighed, putting on an exasperated tone, and turned his head to look at Kara. "How about you, Kylie? Who would you say is the biggest bad guy, or girl, around?"

"Kylie?" Kara frowned, as that confused her. "That's not my name."

"Crud. Your cousin slipped up. Must begin with a K, so I'll get it eventually." He said. "But you didn't answer my question."

Kara looked involuntarily to her cousin, and was shocked at what she found. Clark, too, was now glaring at Harry suspiciously. Though she didn't understand why they were suspicious Kara shook her head, refusing to answer.

"Crap. You think I'm trying to get in cahoots with him, don't you?" He sighed again. "I'm trying to help people. I'd be happy enough just going around stopping bank heists and giving out medical attention where possible, but that's a stupid attitude for someone like me to have. At least, when on a world like this."

"'A world like this'?" Bruce spoke again. "How many worlds have you been to?" He asked with a slight frown yet again.

"Pff…" Harry blew out a breath. "More than I can be bothered to count. A hundred? Five? Something like that…" Then, his eyes brightened. "Oh, I have it written somewhere… where is it, where are you hiding you little bugger…" He patted each of the pockets of his jacket, and pulled out a folded piece of paper. "Every bloody time, I forget about these things." His eyes scanned the page, and Superman spoke.

"I'm sorry, but that sheet's blank."

"Nah. Not blank, but it wouldn't do for the info to get around. Scare the masses." Harry said absentmindedly. He nodded to himself. "Still simple enough." He muttered to himself. "Let's see… ah, there we go. She doesn't like it when I lose count." He smiled at his own words. "Including this one, I've been to four hundred and three. This isn't the worst, but there seems to be a lot of… supervillains."

Kara was shocked at the number.

"That's quite a few." Her cousin said. "Apologies, but aren't you a little young to have done so much?"

"Nope." Harry said in return, his tone one of merriment.

"I see…" Clearly, he didn't, but her cousin wanted to move on. "Well, assuming you're telling the truth, why are you here?"

"I… got made redundant." Harry said, and all three of the others present saw there was more to it as the man frowned for the first time since introducing himself. "Got told this would be the best universe to settle down in."

" _Universe_?" Batman objected. "You've been to four hundred and three _universes_?"

"Maybe... I never really thought about it until recently, but it would make sense for that to be the case." Harry shrugged his shoulders. "But that's really not important. I figured you would be the best people to ask about threats, but if you aren't going to answer I don't have any reason to linger. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone about your names. Got no reason to. Have fun doing whatever it is you were doing before I showed up." Harry raised a hand and patted himself on the head. He shimmered, and then seemingly vanished from existence.

The blonde Kryptonian froze for a moment, and her super-mind whirled into existence. She didn't want this person to disappear, and vaguely understood his intent now. And, so, she spoke up.

"Hey, w-wait!" Kara demanded. A few seconds later, Harry reappeared a few metres from where he had been and looked at her curiously. "You said you wanted to help, right?"

"Yep."

"Well… I mean, it isn't up to me, but the League helps people more than anyone else does. Maybe you could convince them to let you join?" She half-asked, half suggested.

"Right… well, I'm not all that much of a team player. Might be best for me to work on my own."

"I doubt you're less of a team player than Batman." Superman offered, with a small smile. Bruce made no effort to refute the statement.

"Good point." Harry smirked in response. "I'll give it some thought. I'll meet you back here tomorrow around the same time?" He offered. Superman nodded.

Batman did not look so agreeable, and opened his mouth to speak as Harry turned on the spot and vanished in a muffled _pop_.

Bruce turned on Clark as the other vanished, and proceeded to berate him for using his cave without asking. At the same time, Kara thought about the man who had just vanished.

-()()-

Harry apparated into the empty alley that he had been staying in, and scratched his nose. Then, he flicked his wrist and a small trunk leapt out of his Dragonhide jacket's pocket. It landed on the floor, and grew to full size a second later. Harry flicked it, and the lid popped open.

He hopped inside, and the lid closed behind him as Harry landed softly on the red-carpeted floor of his library-area. Ignoring the bookshelves that held more shrunk trunks full of books he'd collected over the years, Harry sat in a black padded swivel-chair at his desk, and took a scroll from the inside pocket of his jacket.

"About time I read the hints. Pretty damn proud of myself that I figured out Batman _and_ Superman's secret identities without it though. Either I'm getting back up to full speed or this world has some incredibly dumb humans." It was a reasonable length of time for Harry to be revamped. Not the fastest or the slowest. Once, he'd been working at half-speed for the better part of a month. Another time, it had taken him less than an hour to get to this point. Death had given him a complicated explanation to do with the… something-waves of the _worlds_ he visited, though now he thought her wording would probably point to Universes being the case. The frequencies at which they operated meant jumping between them was variably hard on him. Or, at least, that's what Harry understood it as. Honestly, he didn't care all that much so long as it didn't bite him in the ass. "No more procrastinating Harry, no matter how irritating they are."

He broke the seal, and set to work.

On the paper, there were lots of scribbled symbols and what most people would interpret as hieroglyphics. Harry frowned down at the badly-conveyed information, and rubbed his forehead. "I'm getting a migraine already.

"Well, that lot must be the Justice League." Harry thought that a reasonable assumption after a few minutes examining the images. In a grouping, there were seven symbols. A bat, the Superman-S, a tiara, a hawk, a lightning bolt, a green circle that could be seen as a ring, and a red X.

"That's… the illuminati triangle-eye thingy? So… rich guys?" Harry shrugged mentally. He looked at the image directly next to it.

"The US flag. Well, I'm in America so that's probably going to be relevant."

"A clown and a harlequin. I've already encountered the Joker, so that's fair enough."

"Two letter Ls. Lex Luthor, I suppose. Is that to keep an eye on him, or to kill the bastard?" He couldn't help but wonder. "Well, I'll see how things pan out I guess. And then he's repeated again with a bunch of others around him. The GG is prominent. No clue who that could be.

"Two letter Ms. I don't fucking know who that would be." He muttered. By this point, Harry had been sat for an hour. Many of the symbols had meant nothing to him. Many of them, in fact, meant nothing to anybody. Death was pushing the limits of what was allowed by giving him this much, and making it explicit would be a bad idea so she included false trails to follow. Not that Harry had any idea what would happen if she told him outright. Maybe he'd be killed, because he didn't know how Death could be punished herself.

"And a face made out of rock? Seriously?" Harry was frustrated, and this seemed extremely unhelpful. "I feel like I would have found out about a dude made of rock in my time on the internet. But I didn't. And I know this one's genuine, too, because it's somehow linked to Superman." There was a small line from the rock-head to the S. Had Harry not pushed it out of his head, he would have asked the man about it. Unfortunately, he blew out a breath as he stood from the desk.

"To hell with this," Harry muttered eventually, growing sick of the exercise. "My time can be better spent elsewhere. Taking a nap, for example."

He went to do just that.

-()()-

When Harry woke an indeterminate time later, he very much felt refreshed and slowly stood. It honestly just felt good not to have to rush to wake; in any of the warzones he'd visited in the past lie-ins weren't a luxury one could afford.

Harry rubbed his eyes as he threw the ruby-red quilt off himself and placed his feet on the floor. He thought about his situation, and felt sick at the notion of looking over Death's notes again. They were rarely helpful enough to justify putting himself through the boredom that… bored him, and if he had the rest of his life on this planet, Harry was sure it could wait.

That being said, he was not the type of person to sit around doing nothing. Or, at least, not anymore. In his first life, Harry had been stupidly lazy. If one could afford to sit around comfortably, then there was no reason not to, but when a person was being hunted by a Dark WIzards, it couldn't be said that they could afford to do anything but train to _survive_. Harry was a combatant, now, and so he felt the need to train.

He had felt that same need, in fact, since he got here. The only thing that had stopped him was the fact that he _knew_ his magic would be volatile before now. It would have been silly of him to train with it, or test it as he intended to do now, without waiting for it to level off. Last time he'd done that Harry had punched a hole in his trunk. It was not fun repairing that, nor had it been fun looking for temporary accommodations in a swamp-world.

Harry made his way to a third room of his trunk, and tapped his middle finger's nail against it, and then the second knuckle of his index finger followed by the knuckles of both his ring and pinky while pushing magic into them. The door swung open, and Harry stepped inside while whistling a tune to himself that he could not recall, for the life of him, the origin of.

He ignored the wall full of weapons, and made his way to the large open space in the centre of the room. It was the size of a decent hall, and Harry was quite certain that he would be fine in the area as he thought on the decision he would be needing to make at some point soon.

Speaking of…

" _Tempus_." He said, with his hand extended in front of him with the palm facing up. "Didn't need it, Harry." He then muttered annoyedly, but shrugged as the feeling faded and read the numbers. 3:00AM. Shit. That was an awkward time to have woken. He'd be tired again by the time he had to meet Superman, and would be grouchy. Unless, of course, he was to exhaust himself now and get another eight-or-so hours.

"Well," Harry rolled his shoulders. "What better way to get a handle on my sturdiness, and exhaust myself at the same time, than to wrestle a big ol' beast?" He cracked his knuckles, and waved his right hand at the open space before him. "I believe a Nemean Lion will do the job." This time, he did not speak any incantation as he channeled the magic through his right hand.

A golden glow of light appeared, and from that light emerged a brilliantly golden big cat. It looked around for a moment, and found its summoner. It gave a challenging roar, and bound forwards to meet a stone-faced Harry in combat.

It flung him across the room, and Harry's lips twitched into a smile. He re-entered the fray with banisher-imbued fists raised.

-()()-

Harry had woken again tender. His magic had already begun to heal him by that point, a benefit of it permeating every inch of his being, but it hadn't achieved any more than repairing the broken and shattered bones he had received during the fight. His bruises and sprains had needed some salves and potions to heal in time for this meeting, and so Harry had taken a bath in the stuff.

Harry wasn't sure how to explain away getting the injuries in that way without embarrassing himself. So he would not make the attempt. As Harry reentered the training room to vanish the bed he had conjured and collapsed into at five in the morning, he conjured a knife. Then, he flicked his wrist, and it flew through the air. Next, he flicked his wrist again and a target appeared in the air in the knife's path. The blade sunk into the bullseye with a _thud_ , and both fell to the floor.

"Booyah." He smiled to himself and continued on. The twin-bed was easy to be rid of, and Harry scratched his chest. "Hm. Clothes'll be necessary. Where did I put the wardrobe this time? Urgh… I don't have time to find them, so I guess conjured is my only option."

Boxer-briefs, jeans, socks, a white t-shirt and black trainers appeared on the floor in front of him, and Harry dressed quickly. He _had_ overslept. Not enough to be late, but enough that someone who couldn't apparate would be in serious risk of tardiness.

Harry moved through red-papered hallways with quick steps, and found his dining area. He opened the room devoted to alcohol, and pulled out a bottle or red wine. One he understood to be worth a pretty penny in the world he'd been given it. Foul stuff, in his opinion, but Bruce Wayne would probably make use of it, or find someone who could.

Since he was going to be a guest in his house, Harry may as well give the guy a thank-you present.

-()()-

Bruce Wayne was not happy.

Around the scowling Bat, were the other members of the Justice League. Or, at least, the official members; the founders, as he understood they were to be called. There were dozens of heroes who had agreed to join, and nearly as many whom they had not yet heard from.

To his immediate left, sat Diana. And she was unique in that Bruce was not truly bothered by her presence. He would rather they be somewhere other than his sanctum santorium, but if someone outside the Bat-family was to be here, he would choose Diana without question.

The others, though… they were causing a ruckus. Or, at least, some of them were. One of them was. John and J'onn were, as always, calm-faced. They were not the type to act out, especially not in the Batcave, and so Batman's objections to their presence were mostly on principle at this point. They knew where he resided, but having them here so soon after revealing his secret identity could encourage an _open door policy_. Superman was overly comfortable with Bruce's residence already, and so it was even more of an issue with him.

But the one who was truly getting on the billionaire's nerves was the Flash. Wally was… entertaining himself by rushing through Batman's rogues gallery, and he had already knocked Freeze's gun off its display. It was almost inevitable, in Bruce's mind, that the speedster do some serious damage to the cave; likely by activating one of the more dangerous items that he found interesting.

"Flash!" Batman barked at the immature man. The speedster skidded to a stop, and looked at the caped crusader. Batman pointed to the seat Wally had vacated with a silent order.

"Fine." Flash muttered. "I thought you said he'd be here by now?" He complained.

None of the others responded, and the Flash zoomed over to his seat and fell back into it with a huff. Then, a _yelp_ that attracted the attention of the other Leaguers.

"What is it?" John Stewart asked, bringing his right hand to hover over the table.

"My chair!" Wally exclaimed, and gestured wildly with his head to the armrests. "It's got me!" And it had. The high-quality plastic and the metal beneath had wrapped around Flash's wrists, and were keeping him pinned to it. "What the hell?!"

"Someone really ought to get him checked for ADHD." A new voice, for most of those present said from behind Bruce. He turned in his chair, not letting it show that he was indeed surprised, and found _Harry_ stood awkwardly, with a bottle in his hand. "Here." The man shoved the wine into Bruce's hand, and stepped away.

"Hey! What's the big idea?!" Wally demanded, allowing Bruce to look at the bottle in his hand, and blink his surprise. "Are you doing this?!"

"The chair?" The new arrival asked. "Yeah, that's me."

"Why?!"

"The red blur zipping around was giving me a headache," Harry said in way of an explanation. "The colour's too eye-catching. I would've gone with something a bit less conspicuous, personally."

"Huh?" Flash frowned. "Hey, don't insult my costume!"

"Wasn't an insult." Harry said. "Just a comment. I assume that you've got a reason for it, just like big-blue has for the tights." He nodded to Superman. "I just can't see the reason. Not for you two, at least."

"And who's _do_ you see the reason for?" Clark wondered. Bruce hoped that wasn't his attempt to glean information from their visitor. If it was, he would have to give him some pointers at a later date.

"Batman's," Harry said, and then his eyes moved over the others. Bruce noted that they barely lingered on Diana, as most men's eyes did. "And… Green Lanterns." He nodded at the African-American man's outfit. "Batman, other than going for a battish-look, can blend into the urban environment of Gotham, and the shadows. Mr Stewart's is a uniform."

"What is wrong with mine?" Diana's tone was borderline demanding. Bruce guessed her pride was somewhat insulted.

"Nothing at all," Harry's eyes moved onto hers, and Bruce was fairly certain that he was the only one who saw the determination to keep them there in the emerald orbs. "But it leaves quite a bit of flesh uncovered. I suppose that could be intended to distract your opponents, but it also increases your vulnerability slightly… although, I don't know how armoured the rest of your outfits are so maybe I'm wrong in that." He said to the rest of them, with another shrug. Bruce caught something there, and decided to make some attempt to narrow down the man's identity. He had failed to identify anything about the man before he saved Lois Lane, and that bothered the World's greatest detective.

"Where in England did you grow up?" He asked.

"Hm? Near London. Why do you ask?" Harry inquired.

"I'm curious about your accent. Or lack thereof."

"Oh." Harry smirked to himself, zoning out for a moment, and then explained the expression. "Yeah, accents tend to fade no matter what happens. I still have it, because I quite like the reminder of where I came from, but I had to adapt in more than a few worlds. You wouldn't _believe_ how many evil geniuses have English accents." The wizard shook his head. "People assumed _I_ was evil because of it!"

"I see." Bruce mostly understood, but he had established that Harry did not hail from this world, at least according to the man himself. The only other potential explanation would be insanity and, so, Batman would make inquiries on the subject with Arkham and the like.

"Harry?" Diana spoke up.

"Wonder Woman?"

"Superman said you may be interested in joining us. Is that the case?" The black haired woman asked. Then, she waited.

Harry stood still, and adopted a thoughtful expression as the Leaguers expressed interest in his answer.

-()()-

Harry waited for the super-powered beings to grow impatient happily. He was uncomfortable in this situation, and would gladly let them share in his discomfort.

Harry didn't know enough about the people around him to say for sure what his chances would have been had this been some kind of trap, but he was willing to bet that he's faced worse odds in the past and survived. Well… maybe survived was the wrong word, but he had won in the end. The Chosen of Death understood that the Leaguers did not use lethal force, and that would be a big advantage for him even if he did not understand the mentality in regards to at least one of the members. Perhaps, though, the image was just that which was given to the public; that would make far more sense than an ex-marine and a warrior princess suddenly turning to pacifism.

Harry kept himself restrained, and ignored his instincts as he had done throughout this conversation. Even if it was logical, it wouldn't do to hit first in this situation. Not until he saw _some_ evidence that they meant him harm, anyway.

This was the first time since Death had dropped him on this planet that Harry felt threatened. Especially after the Thanagarian's sword failed to break his skin. Thugs and hired guns didn't qualify as threats, certainly. Nor did crazy clown-ladies. The biggest threat to his well-being had been the first enemies Harry had met with, and without their weapons what good were the bird-soldiers?

This lot, though… they could be trouble. Fun, certainly, but trouble. Maybe it would be best if he not antagonise them.

"I might be." Harry nodded slowly. Truth be told, he had decided on this course of action while blowing off some steam the night before; Death was right in saying his instinct was to help people, and Harry couldn't figure out exactly how to do that on his own. There were some people on Earth who would be worth putting down before they could start any real trouble, Lex Luthor and the Joker being two names atop that list, but this Earth had gone through several alien invasions in the past couple of years. That suggested strongly that the _real_ threats would come from the stars. The Leaguers were more suited to that than he was.

"But I don't understand why you would just open the doors to your spacestation to me." Harry continued. "The se-six of you know each other by this point. You don't know me." He reasoned. The Green Lantern frowned slightly at Harry correcting himself from saying _seven_.

"You would not be alone in joining us," Superman answered for the team. "We are too small a force to protect the Earth properly, and have decided to expand. There will hopefully be around fifty members joining us, so that we can improve in this regard."

"Oh." Well that helped alleviate Harry's slight paranoia. "That's sensible. What does joining consist of?"

It was Batman who answered this time. "You will be given a communicator that J'onn will use to contact you when you have an assignment. And you will have a room on the Watchtower, should you choose to stay there after missions or when you are not needed in your personal life."

"'Personal life'?" Harry repeated, in an amused tone. He found it funny that the SUperheroes needed to take a break to go out on the town. "Oh, you mean your secret identities?"

"Yes." Batman said.

"Wait. Do you not intend to have a secret identity?" Superman asked, catching the wording.

"Nope. Not a chance." Harry shook his head.

"Why not?"

"Because that'd mean having to have a costume. I'm not wearing lycra or a cape. Sorry." Not even a cloak, because Harry thought the notion silly. Combats were far more sensible, in his mind.

"But what about your loved ones?" Superman frowned.

"What loved ones?" Harry laughed without humour. "I haven't had loved ones in nearly a century, big-blue. No family, no friends."

"No family?" Wonder Woman's voice was sympathetic, not that she had much of a secret identity either, and Harry resisted the temptation to correct that.

"No." He said simply. "Never really had a family to begin with. Orphan raised by bastards." He poked himself in the chest with his thumb. "So when do I get to see my new digs?" He asked.

"That's not…" Superman was confused by this. He firmly believed that heroes needed secret identities; especially those who were human. "What about if you find friends? What about if you fall in love?"

Harry smirked, and shook his head at the naivety of the Man of Steel. "Unlikely, but if it'll make you feel better…" Harry's body tingled as he directed his magic to purpose. It was very amusing, as he watched the Leaguers' faces as his began to change. As Harry's body changed shape, he was suddenly looking up at the seated Leaguers. "I have it covered." It was the voice of a six year old girl that spoke now, and Harry giggled at the looks on their faces.

"Sh-Shapeshifter?" J'onn J'onzz looked like he'd seen a ghost, and Harry's female brow dipped as he wondered why.

"My people called it a Metamorphmagus," Harry's now high pitched voice responded. "But pretty much, yeah."


	5. Scars

**This one's a rather short chapter, but it felt like a good place to end it. At some point in the next chapter, expect more interaction between Harry and the League. Or, at least, a member of it.**

 **I hope you enjoy the chapter. I own nothing.**

The league was silent for a stretch. Each of them staring at Harry in his new, extremely different, form. He was now in the form of a red haired, female child with a splattering of freckles across his button nose and wide, green eyes that stared adorably, if he did say so himself, up at the Leaguers.

But the novelty wore off after a few minutes, and Harry returned to his own self. The sweet smile he had adopted to go with the little girl changed to a mischievous smirk, as he relished in the feel of shocking them with the old trick.

Then, upon hearing a gasp from Diana, Harry remembered why he had been given the ability. He swore as Flash's eyes widened to an almost comical sense, Superman's face fell into a look of concern, Jonn gained an expression of empathy, John looked down at the table, his hand clenching into a fist, and Batman winced very slightly while Diana brought a hand to her mouth.

Harry focused on the magic in his blood again, and his body smoothed out.

"How did you get-" Superman began, only to be interrupted.

"Do you honestly think that I made it to here unscathed? I haven't had a nice life, Superman; I didn't _expect_ to have a nice life. I threw that option away far too long ago to still mourn its loss, and there's no need to give me your sympathy."

Clark's mouth closed, and he frowned as Harry ran a hand through his hair.

"Fuck. That's cut our… meeting short. Is there some kind of induction I should know about?" Harry was grateful when Batman decided to answer.

"Yes. It will take place on the nineteenth of July." He said simply, and then amended. "We'll get a communicator to you before then so that you can have ample warning before we teleport you up."

Harry opened his mouth to ask about the teleporter. Then, it snapped shut and he grit his teeth before nodding to the Leaguers and turning on the spot.

-()()-

Bruce turned to look at the others as their newest recruit left, and his brow dipped at the expressions they held. Ones of sympathy. Pity, even.

"Don't." He said.

Each of them gave an inquiring look, except John. Bruce knew why that was the case.

"We've all conversed with him. I may not trust him, but Harry is clearly formidable even without seeing the footage of his abilities and fighting prowess. He would not want to be pitied." Nor did Bruce. Those memories would always stay with him; being seen as the orphan whose parents were shot dead in front of him had been horrible even as a child. And, so, he understood how disgusting it must be for Harry to see those expressions now.

"He's a soldier." John hissed

"What?" Wally asked. "How did you get to that? He seemed… seemed like a _goofball_ to me." Batman saw the man wait for somebody to shoot him a reply, and then pout. Had Bruce been nicer, and the situation been less serious, he might have even said 'it takes one to know one'.

"An act." Green Lantern shook his head. "He's not obvious about it, but I saw it. I bet Batman did, as well." Bruce nodded. "He must have been here for a good while before drawing our attention. I can only assume that he was performing reconnaissance, but that wasn't enough. Couldn't be enough for someone who's sustained those… his eyes were scanning us throughout the meeting. He doesn't trust us either."

"I'm surprised he didn't attack." Batman nodded. "I'm sure he thought about it multiple times. He knew that we were a fighting force, and was working on the assumption that we were attempting to spring a trap." Bruce saw how his eyes darted to Superman more often than any of the others. He was the biggest threat, but more than that HArry had demonstrated this at the beginning. "He took out the immediate threat even before speaking." The Dark Knight nodded at the still-restrained Flash.

" _Me_?!" Wally yelped. "I'm not the threat. Why would he restrain _me_ instead of Superman?!"

"I didn't say the biggest threat, though I'm not sure Superman would have been at that," Bruce saw Clark nod. Kryptonians were not particularly vulnerable to magic, but nor did they have any resistance to it. He may well be as vulnerable as an ordinary human to Harry's spells. At most, he would be as vulnerable as an extremely tough human. "But you would have been the first of us to land an attack had this been a trap. And you gave him the perfect excuse to restrain you. That you were being annoying."

"That's right. But I don't think he would have chosen to take you out first had he had the choice. After Superman, his eyes flicked to me and J'onn the most. I expect that he was uncomfortable with variables and doesn't know how my constructs would fair against magic, while J'onn's abilities are wide-ranging. Plus, he hasn't been active for long enough for them all to have necessarily been shown."

"Oh…" Wally blinked. "That… makes sense, I guess."

"And how does that change what has happened to him?" Diana asked. "I have met many warriors before, but never have I seen such incredible injuries… not on a mortal, anyway. I have only ever seen Lord Ares sustain such wounds, and he seeks out violence."

"Harry said it himself. It was inevitable that he be injured, and perhaps he was just unlucky in the injuries he sustained." Bruce reasoned. He had already briefed the Leaguers on the fact that Harry was a dimension traveller, and they all knew that he had hinted to have visited worlds in the grip of war.

"You can say that again," Wally said. "Those scars…"

-()()-

Harry's breathing was heavy, as he looked around the room he had so thoroughly destroyed while clenching and unclenching a smoking left fist.

Scorch marks, and piles of ash had replaced the well-furnished living space thanks to the fire that fed off Harry's frustration with himself, and the situation he was in.

He was stuck on this planet for the foreseeable future. Supposedly, he would gain something from this planet, too, though Harry doubted what Death had hinted would come to pass. And he had just royally fucked himself over.

How on Earth was he meant to explain all they had seen? To explain what had happened to him without giving far too much information, and destroying any chance of working with the Leaguers? Even amongst superpowered humans, his abilities were… unnatural. Harry did not have a problem with them, but historically everyone else _did_. Magic tended to be bad enough, without the amendments given to him by Death both purposefully and on accident.

The scars were hidden for a damn good reason, and it seemed to Harry that they gave a very large hint about his abilities. None of the Leaguers were unintelligent, and at least two of them came across as remarkably sharp-minded. Between Batman and the Martian Manhunter, it was inevitable that they would grasp the severity of his injuries, even only based on that above his shoulders.

Harry frowned. If only he was able to converse with Death, he felt certain that she would be able to offer him advice vital to his next move. Most likely, she would know something about the situation at hand that had escaped him and would be able to nudge Harry's conversation in a certain direction to garner sympathy from the group.

But he could not. So Harry would have to deal with his mess himself. He only had a fortnight before he would be teleported to the Watchtower, and he had some things to get in order first.

He needed to decide conclusively whether he would join, for example. It was obvious that Harry would be better able to protect innocents' lives in the League should alien invasions occur, but damn near of the news footage he had seen on them had been dealing with the Thanagarians; the rest had dealt with their other epic battles. Did they deal with everyday matters as well? If so, it would be useful being a part of a trusted organisation that may well receive requests from the governments of the world. Otherwise, Harry would largely be reliant on luck in whether he stumbled upon criminal activity and would have to set up some kind of system to alert him. Runes were the best option for him, since technology was not something he had had a lot to do with over the years, but such an intricate system would be troublesome to create.

As well as that was making a list of dangerous villains. He couldn't deal with them just yet, given how new he was to this world, but if they went too far Harry would put them down and deal with the reactions of this world's inhabitants after. Better to be hated than for there to be none left to hate him. Assuming he joined the League, Harry would pitch a more proactive approach to their heroism. It was dumb to just wait for escaped criminals to act out their plots when they had such a substantial force to seek them out. That being said, maybe it would be wise of him to make a list of like-minded heroes… both in searching for enemies and in putting them down permanently.

Harry would hopefully gain access to the League's records shortly, so he would put examining the villains he was likely to face off with on the backburner. It would do to know their strengths and weaknesses.

He needed to come up with a better system of flight, too. It seemed like an altogether common ability in this world, and not having it could potentially bite him in the bum at a later date. If nothing else, he could stand to practise his current method, and get it to a more refined form; flight had never seemed that important before, and so Harry had not put any significant effort into it.

For that matter, Harry could do with training some more in other aspects. Until now, it had always seemed that when facing off against the big guns of the enemy it was only him in the fray. If he was going to have teammates with him, then obliterating everything in front of him would not do the job. And if his teammates were goody-two-shoes, then Harry wouldn't be allowed to pulverise the enemies, either.

That meant coming up with a new heavy-duty arsenal. And that sucked. Harry found spell-inventing boring, but relying on raw magic was always… inconsistent. It was much better to manipulate magic with incantations than with desire and force of will. He would find the process mind-numbingly boring until it came time to test out the finished product. Then, he'd inevitably get as giddy as a child on christmas eve and cast it a dozen times. And go back to the drawing board to create another spell.

"Maybe joining the League isn't the best idea…" Harry muttered, from his place in the centre of what had been his living room. "Bah. Don't be lazy. I have to just get on with it. Besides, I'd have to work with them at some point anyway; this'll just prepare me for it better.

"First, though, I need to fix this mess." He frowned at the room, and raised his right hand. Light sparked off it as he waved at the various piles of ash. They vanished, and were replaced by more furniture, just as magically toughened as the rest. In the fireplace that had been smashed to pieces but now was repaired, a warm homely fire burned. In front of it, there were two armchairs and a sofa. Each was ruby red with a golden trim. A coffee table was in the centre of the space.

Wallpaper sprang onto the walls of the room, decorated with badgers, eagles, lions and snakes. And Harry cast a spell that allowed one of each of the creatures to move in a playful chase. Then, he exited the room, heading instead for his work-space where he sat down and started drawing out the planned effects of his new spells.

-()()-

This first spell was an interesting one, if Harry did say so himself.

It had the potential to be extremely useful for situations inside combat and out, as long as Harry had not made any mistakes. Based on the effect it had had on him, that was unlikely, but he _had_ woken up earlier than predicted. That suggested to him that there were variables for the effectiveness.

One of these variables, Harry theorised, was the physical ability of the target. That was why he was here today, waiting in the shadows outside of the criminal's warehouse.

It was out of character, from what Harry understood of the man, to be working in unison with common drug dealers. Presumably, the factory was also producing that which was valuable to the supervillain.

What was that called? It was escaping Harry for the moment, because the name he had read was the complicated, scientific title. Of course, there would also be the street name and he would have seen that had he not read about the man in a scientific journal.

Ah, well. That wasn't important at the moment. Harry needed to pay attention to the situation at hand, as it did not look as though Bane would be exiting the building anytime soon. Harry's examination had not revealed any traps, but the more mundane ones were difficult for him to find from this distance so he would need to be effective. Losing a leg to a mine was a _painful_ experience after all.

Harry waited until the mercenary on this side of the roof turned away, and burst out from his cover. The dimension-traveller reached a sprint within moments, and his not-banisher hit the ground and flung him into the air. Harry gripped the building with his magic, and pulled himself towards it even as he rose in the air. He shot towards the structure, and prepared to land on what would have been a cushioning charm. Had he reached the flat of the rooftop.

As Harry's foot clipped the edge of the roof, and he slammed face first into the concrete, he decided he needed more practise.

Harry spat out a few teeth with a glob of blood, and snapped his nose back into place as they grew back and he rose to his feet. Gods, regrowing teeth was uncomfortable. He idly noted that his magic was fusing two halves of a broken cheekbone together again, and dropped into a crouch to await the guard's return.

It was not as soon as Harry predicted. Apparently the man had not heard him go splat, and was continuing his rounds. That was lucky.

Harry disillusioned himself and waited for the man to walk past before acting. He walked up behind the hired gun, and snaked his arm around the man's throat. Harry slapped the man's forehead, with his hand glowing scarlet, and he went slack. Harry lowered him to the floor, and moved on.

Then, Harry moved to the glass portion of the roof and peered down into the building. He only had to look for a moment to find his target, for obvious reasons. Bane was one of the biggest people Harry had ever seen, and was wearing his typical apparel of what seemed to be a mexican-wrestler's mask. Another man, this one significantly smaller and wearing a white lab coat, walked beside him and Harry believed that they were conversing, though on what matter he didn't really care.

Harry gestured at the window, and the glass vanished. He winced ever so slightly, as it turned out the pane had been far more soundproof than Harry had assumed, and that gunshots were sounding inside. The sound was one he associated with fighting, but he ignored the spike in adrenaline in favour of leaning through the empty space, disillusioned, to examine the occupants of the room.

Nineteen, that he could see, including Bane and the scientist.

Doable.

-()()-

When he dropped Bane off at the Gotham PD station later that day, it was incase in an inch of ice and frozen stiff mid-turn. Harry's spell had worked as well as he had hoped, and the man was frozen in an effective-stasis. Of course cracks were already forming in the ice, but that was to be expected since Bane did not want to be frozen.

Harry had left a bow on Bane's icy head, and rung the doorbell by way of three gunshot sounds. Then, he turned on the spot and appeared back in his alleyway to find an unwelcome surprise.

"Who-za-what?!" The homeless man woke at the _crack_ with a start, and his eyes found Harry. The wizard sighed, pulled a handful of notes he had _confiscated_ from the drug lords before sending a message to the local authorities, and tossed them to the weary vagabond. Harry then walked out of the alley, and wandered around for a while pondering on what he should do next. He would need a place of residence, and it was inevitable that one of Gotham's many homeless would find his trunk if he left it in the open. Even with the notice-me-not charms etched into it, it was far too out of place to remain inconspicuous for someone who knew the area well. Or was unusually sharp.

He paused in front of a hotel, and wondered. He _did_ like hotels and it would only be for a short time. More importantly, he didn't know whether the League would be able to reach him if he stayed in his trunk. Might be better to have an address, even if it was a temporary one.

First, he'd need to get some money. Selling some gold was the obvious method, and the one Harry settled on. And it only took him a half hour to figure out where to do so.

An hour after he found the hotel, he was checking into another one. Harry had slept on the cold hard ground more times than he could count, but if he had the choice between a three-star and five-star hotel, he was going to pick the five.

Walking to the front-desk, he paid for a room, pretending not to notice the receptionist's blatant flirting, and headed straight up.

Harry took the stairs. He didn't like elevators for the simple reason that being in one when the cable snapped tended to have an effect on one's opinion of the method of ascension. He reached his floor, and entered the hotel room to find himself pleasantly surprised.

Apparently he had been given a suite. Well, that was _one_ thing that had gone his way in recent memory.

Maybe this would be a turning point.


	6. Lanterns and Dinner

The Green Lantern John Stewart was having a bad day. Or was it night in the United States? His ring could have told him, had the man been able to spare enough concentration to ask, but fending multiple opponents all of whom were strong enough to kill millions required it all. And it was not important.

What was important was leading them into the trap Batman had told him of, before they strayed off course and began razing the cities of Earth to the ground.

He rolled in mid air, swiftly darting right at the same time, and avoided the fire that passed through the space previously containing his body. John fired blind over his shoulder, and heard a snarl of pain as his green jet of light found its mark.

John sent a construct-fist at the alien directly above him, and the male dodged it and lost some speed. The Green Lantern turned to face upwards, and took aim at the next man.

"Raah!" It screamed.

"Bah!" John yelled back, and a emerald fly-swatter batted the creature into one of its fellows. Both his the water with screams of displeasure before rising once again and charging after him and the others pursuing.

At hearing eager shrieks, John looked over his head, and swore. A passenger jet.

A baseball bat-construct formed, radiating green light, and John swung. He would need to hit hard to get their attention back onto him instead of the plane, but at least this should get all five near to Gotham-Metropolis bay. The League was waiting for him there, because interception in space was his forte; had one of them not veered off course he would have led them straight there. Unfortunately, plans rarely worked out for he and his ilk.

The crimson-glowing enemies shrieked as they were sent rocketing towards Gotham city.

-()()-

Harry was on his feet in a moment, as something shattered his window, and his hands were raised to attack before he saw what had entered without his permission.

"Green Lantern?!"

"Harry?!"

 _With blood and rage of crimson red,  
Ripped from a corpse so freshly dead,  
Together with our Hellish hate,  
We'll burn you all!  
That is your fate!_

"What the fuck?" Harry asked, looking at the empty window pane as a red light shone. He blinked, and raised his hands as the Green Lantern yelled.

"Get down!" He leapt in front of Harry, and poured his willpower into the ring.

"Why would I do that?" Harry wondered. " _Protego Flecto_." He intoned, and the burning tree on his right forearm glinted as the air outside rippled. A blue, shimmering construct came into being outside Harry's window. Then, a similar shape appeared over his palm and Harry held it to face the attackers as the Red Lanterns' attack was unleashed.

Harry's hand tingled as the red energy slammed into his shield, and seemingly vanished. He pushed John out of the way absentmindedly with his left hand and waited. Five seconds later, it happened.

A massive beam of red light tore from Harry's director, and shot back at the attacking lanterns. Though he did not see his targets, Harry heard shocked yells and a scream of pain before he turned his head to speak to the shocked Lantern.

"So… friends of yours?" He asked. "If they are, I have a feeling you might be annoyed with me."

"What did you just do?" John asked, mystified.

"I can't say until I know who's attacking us. And with what."

"They're Red Lanterns. They use power batteries and rings in a twisted replication of the Green Lantern Corps and fuel them with rage to use energy attacks." John explained. Harry saw him put his curiosity aside, as this was not the time to be inquiring. "Their bloodthirst is immense, and their powers are deadly."

"Right. I sent their energy attack back at them, then, I guess." Harry summoned a kevlar vest and donned it with a few muttered spells to reinforce the fabric, leaving his arms bare but providing some more protection for his torso. He doubted that it would be necessary, but the extra protection _could_ prove vital. Harry flicked his wrist, and his bag opened to launch his SIG Sauer into the air. It shot into his left hand, and Harry cocked it. "What about their weaknesses?" Harry had not found any information about them in his research, and it would be useful to him in the fight to come.

"They're driven by instinct. The resultant lack of intelligence is the main weakness, and none of those present seem to have regained their intelligence in the Lake of Blood."

"Okay…" Harry gave the Green Lantern a look that said how weird that statement sounded. "How dangerous are they?" His question was punctuated by a scream of fear coming into the room.

"Extremely. Especially to the defenseless." The superhero, bathed in green light, flew out of the room and Harry followed in a more awkward fashion. If only he was willing to disembowel someone prostrating themselves to him, it wouldn't be an issue. But, alas, magic was a cruel thing and Riddle had been willing to do anything to show how above everyone else he was. Harry had not been willing to copy him at any point. Flight had not ever been necessary enough for that.

Harry let himself plummet towards the ground, and his eyes found one of the red men. He lined up the sights, and a trio of gunshots rang through the air. Each found its mark, even if they missed his right shoulder by a sizeable margin.

The Red Lantern, a purple skinned alien, howled as his left thigh hung by a thread and boiling blood poured from the destroyed limb. Harry winced, and his right hand darted out. " _Innoglaciem_." The light blue spell sank into its gut, and the hate-filled lantern was covered in an inch of ice. The others had turned upon hearing the shrieks of pain, and on some level must have realised how much of a threat a gun that could pierce their shields was. Harry levelled the gun on another, and fired twice.

A glowing red shield sprang into existence between the two, and the bullets ricocheted off. Harry winced, but was happy to see that they had expended their magical energy on opening tiny holes in the crimson shield. That meant that when they found a wall, the projectiles did not burrow through.

Harry raised his right hand, and magic leapt from his fingertips. A white stag charged the Red Lantern, and did not seem to notice the barrier between as it leapt at its target. The Red Lantern shrieked, and let the shield fall while blasting the Patronus. It fell away into mist, and a jet of red light struck the man in the face, followed by three ropes.

Harry turned, as he heard an infuriated yell, and saw a ring pointed at him before a massive green mallet _thunked_ the enemy into the ground. John hovered above the ground, with another of the attackers wrapped in emerald chains behind him, and nodded to Harry.

"Where's the one you injured with the first attack?" He asked, with a slight frown.

"Waaah!" Both turned as they heard a scream of terror and found a chilling sight, as the last Alien, a furry canine creature, poised over a child with its teeth bared. It was missing a foot.

Harry yelled wordlessly, and the ground to the right of the Red Lantern shifted. A metal spike shot out, and pierced its torso. Harry was there in a moment, with a _crack_ , and pulled the child away from the screaming, bleeding attacker. The raven haired wizard tapped the child twice, the first resulting in a happy giggle coming from the boy, and his shirt glowed blue before teleporting him away to the lobby of Harry's hotel.

Harry turned back to the impaled Red Lantern with a frown, and flicked his wrist. The spike tore out of it, and the Alien fell to the floor with a pathetic sound. Harry blinked, and it screamed as the wound was cauterised.

Then, John was next to him. "Will he live?"

"It's a he?" Harry wondered. "Should do."

"You don't sound very concerned."

"I'm not very concerned. If it dies, I won't lose any sleep over the incident. Between a child and the bastard trying to kill that child, I think it's pretty obvious who's life is more valuable."

"True." John nodded. "What about the other ones?" He nodded to the two enemies Harry had dealt with, one of whom was tied up and unmoving and the other who was frozen with a large chunk of his leg missing.

"They'll live, yeah. The roped one is just unconscious. I can combine the ice with a healing spell so that the other doesn't bleed out." Harry did just that, and a healthy leaf green glow came from the pale blue ice. "Do I just leave them here?"

"I can take them to the League, and we'll work out a solution. I should be able to get in touch with a Blue Lantern without too much difficulty." John thought aloud.

"And the Blue Lanterns will be some help with this lot?"

John nodded. "Yes. The Blue Lanterns are the only ones who can safely remove Red rings."

"Why's that?" Harry raised an eyebrow, and the Alien with a burn-wound across his body who had fallen unconscious from the pain and lack of blood floated into the air to hover before Harry's eyes. The raven haired wizard took a hold of the wrist and held his hand up for examination. "It doesn't look that difficult to remove. Probably has some security features, but wouldn't they be neutralised if I cut his finger off to get at the ring?"

"No, they wouldn't be. But that's not the reason; the red rings does something to their blood," John eyed the floating Red Lantern with contempt after the earlier scene. "They die painfully unless a Blue Lantern does it. And even this one arguably doesn't deserve that; his mind's warped by the ring."

"Huh." Harry let the canine fall to the floor with a _thud_ , and shrugged. "Okay, then. I guess you can handle this with your ring? I need to fix the damage to my room, or the Hotel'll be unhappy."

"Without a problem." John nodded, and hesitated. Then, he offered Harry a handshake. The wizard accepted the respectful gesture. "Thank you. If I had been fighting them alone, it could have been messy. Collateral damage is something we try to avoid."

"Good to hear." Harry nodded, having figured that this was the case with the superheroes. "See you 'round, then." He looked up to the destroyed window frame, took a hold of it with his magic, and pulled himself to the room with a sharp _yank_ that set him sailing into the air in a somewhat controlled ascent.

It was a simple matter to repair the shattered glass, and the damage done to the rest of the room was minimal; Harry didn't see anything major except for the scorch marks on the ceiling and floor from his redirection of the Red Lanterns' attack. Those, too, required no more than a _Reparo_ , if one with more power than normal, and Harry flopped back onto his bed a moment later.

At least this meant the League wouldn't have any trouble finding him when the time came.

Harry let his mind wander for a time, and eventually settled on a plan of action for the next few hours.

However much he had learned of the world so far, there was more that he could learn. And what the internet could teach him may, some day, prove the difference between defeat and victory. Besides, it wasn't as if he had much else to do.

-()()-

"So, what's the special occasion?" Kara 'Kent' asked her cousin.

"No special occasion," Clark lied. "I just wanted to catch up with my favourite cousin."

"A: I'm your only cousin. B: If you expect me to believe you've taken me to a five star restaurant for the sake of _catching up_ , I'm insulted that you think I'm a typical dumb blonde." Kara narrowed her eyes, as Clark grinned in what he almost certainly hoped was a nonchalant fashion. "You're on a reporter's salary, idiot. And this meal will be pretty darn pricey." She nodded to the menu, and Clark winced at the price tag on the specials.

"Well… okay, then, Bruce told me to come here and I decided to bring you."

"Because…"

"Because what?"

"We both know that you'd rather have brought Lois here. What better first date could there be than in Metropolis' top restaurant?" Kara raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms. "So why did you bring me?"

"It's not…" Clark looked at the approaching waitress and phrased his sentence mundanely. "Lois wouldn't be interested in this business."

Klara waited until the woman had passed, and spoke again. "Lois Lane? Not interested? I doubt that, so you must mean that you don't want her poking around in it… but she will anyway, this will just let you get a headstart on writing up an article?" She guessed. "Or stop her from having all the detail. So it _has_ to be League business… what's going on?" She asked, with a thoughtful frown.

"We're… _I'm_ observing a new member. Bruce is paying for it because he's busy brooding over something and can't come himself."

"What do you mean observing a new member? Observing a new member doing wh-" Kara's head snapped around as a shriek pierced the air, and her eyes widened. The source of the sound was a woman in her mid forties, whose arm was in the vicegrip of an armed gunman. The man, roughly six foot and broad in the shoulder, pointed his rifle into the air and squeezed the trigger, resulting in a burst of gunfire.

"EVERYBODY ON THE GROUND! NOW!" The shooter roared. Everyone dropped to the ground, following the order as one does if one doesn't want to be shot. Kara hesitated, and found herself pulled to the floor by Kal. Clark shot her a look, and the blonde girl, wearing a brown wig to go with her glasses, relented and settled down to observe with her cousin. He must have known this was going to happen, and she trusted Clark.

"You're going to put all your valuables in these bags," The unnamed man held up a burlap sack as his fellows, six men of similar stature, held up their own containers with the hand unoccupied by guns. "Do it quickly and quietly and there won't be any need for people to get hurt! If you don't do as you're told, we will kill you!" He waved the others forward, with one going behind the counter to round up employees, and each of the people headed to a predetermined section of the restaurant.

One of the men passed close by Kara, and she felt nausea rise in her stomach as she began to pale. She shot a look at Clark, and found his appearance mirroring her feeling.

He had kryptonite. Not a large chunk, but enough to hurt either of them badly if he stayed around them for too long. The kryptonian girl felt her anxiety rise, but Clark shook his head. _Don't_ was what he was telling her. Kara reluctantly agreed silently, and stayed on the floor.

She did, however, follow her cousin's eye line as he looked to the corner of a restaurant. And found nothing of interest. She looked back at the gun-wielding thief and noticed that Clark was still looking over in the same direction. With a frown, Kara followed his gaze again.

Hang on. Hadn't there been a gunman over there too only seconds before? How had he vanished?

Kara frowned, and slowly and subtly looked around the room. She found no sight of the man. Only the other four.

Wait. _Four_? There were _six_ to start with. Where could two of them have gone? She decided to keep an eye on the remaining men; if they were sneaking off somewhere it would pay to keep track of them.

Kara caught sight of something in the corner of her eye, and twisted her head to get a better look.

She found nothing, and began to move her head back to its original position before realising what that meant. Another of the gunmen had vanished.

"Hey! Where are the others?!" The furthest man from the Kents, who was also the original speaker, called to the one only four tables away.

"They're… what the?! This wasn't part of the plan! Where'd they go?!"

"I don't know, do I?! That's why I asked _you_!" The far man yelled back. Then, he turned to call to the others. "Did you see 'em leave?!"

Kara didn't hear the response as a foot suddenly occupied her vision. Cringing, she waited for the sickness from Kryptonite to take effect. It did not, and Kara felt confused as the nearest standing man, in her mind, spoke from four tables from her still.

"Then what the fuck is going on?! They can't have just vanished!"

"We know that! What're we supposed to do abou- uh… Jerry?" Kara saw serious befuddlement spread across his face. "What the- what just happened?"

"I don't know… he was there one second and then…"

"What the fuck is going on…" Fear was in the gunman's tone, and Kara's eyes widened as the gun in his grip shook. "WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!" He roared, demanding the answer from the nearest person. This person happened to be a young asian woman in a pantsuit who promptly started to whimper and sob as the gun was levelled on her. "ANSWER ME!"

"No!" Kara exclaimed, as his finger squeezed the trigger.

The man let out the scream of a terrified little girl, as the rifle in his grip turned into a ferret. His grip tightened on the animal, and he shrieked yet again as its teeth found purchase in his hand. The angry man dropped his new pet, and it fell to the floor. The ferret stayed still for a second, as though being given instruction, and then ran at the man. The criminal hesitated for a moment, and that was all the time the rodent needed to find the bottom of his pants' leg. It scrambled up, and Kara saw the bulge it formed ascend up his leg and to his crotch where it began to wriggle and writhe. By the high-pitched yells, she guessed it was biting his privates.

The remaining gunman's mouth fell open as the ferret-victim began to fumble with his belt buckle, attempting to wrestle the clothes off so that he could remove the ferret. What he would have done next, Kara did not know as his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he feinted.

The same thing happened a moment later with the shrieking man. The ferrent removed itself from the predicament and scurried out of the door. Though her attention as on the gunman and his attacker, Kara would later swear that, out of the corner of her eye, she saw a black haired man walk away from the sleeping figure. Of course, that might be because of what she soon learned.

Metropolis PD quickly arrived. Nobody could answer how each of the robbers had wound up unconscious; even the people they had been lying next to had no idea how they got their, and the police found it frustrating. They gave a phone number to contact if anybody remembered something of the incident, and took the arrested out to their squad car.

Clark promptly took Kara's arm, and led her towards the door. The not-brunette followed, waiting to get outside before voicing her curiosity.

"What's going on?" She whispered. "Who was that? I didn't know there was a superhero who could turn invisible."

"Alleyway… alleyway… aha." Clark walked towards the mouth of an alley, and Kara followed in confusion.

"What're we… Harry?" In the alley, Harry Potter leant against a wall with a led box in his hand. The sight of him brought Kara up short, and the disguised heroine was embarrassed that the first thing that she noticed was the handsome man's lack of jacket this time. The black shirt he was wearing was suitably tight that it highlighted his musculature and Kara redenned.

"You both okay?" He asked, in his slightly English accent. She could hear it more this time.

"Fine." Clark answered. "Only one of them had Kryptonite, and I assume that's it in the box." He nodded to Harry's hand and the messy haired man nodded, tossing the box into the air and catching it in a nonchalant gesture.

"Yep. God knows how he got it; while it's a small fragment, the stuff's meant to be insanely rare…" Harry shrugged after a moment, and pocketed the box. Clark pretended to be unbothered, but Kara found herself wondering why he would need the meteorite. "So, I'm guessing you were spying on me?"

"That's… not what I would call it." Clark said, honestly.

"Okay, how about observing me?" Harry raised an eyebrow. "I don't especially care that you were; I spotted the both of you as soon as you walked in." Harry smiled slightly. "The both of you are rather rural; you stand out like a sore thumb in there."

"How did _you not_?" Kara didn't mean to speak. "I mean I should've noticed you- we should have noticed you. You're- you stand out, and I- nobody seemed to notice what you did?"

Harry blinked, and moved his emerald eyes onto her. Kara refused to blush. "Magic." Kara failed in her mission as Harry smiled. "A notice-me-not charm to be exact. Not invisible, per se or it would have made waiting for them much more difficult; people avoid me when they don't want to notice me, but bump into me when invisible."

"Oh…" Kara said, oh so eloquently.

"How did you find out about the robbery?" Clark then asked.

"Batman told me." Harry answered, and then amended the statement. "Well, I think it was Batman. I got a letter at my hotel room telling me about it."

"It probably was." Kara's cousin sighed. "He suggested that I should have dinner there, too, to observe how you handled the situation. I wasn't surprised that he knew you would intervene, but I'd assumed you had a reservation he discovered. Not that he gave you the information himself."

"Hm? Did you approve of how I stopped them?" Harry asked, with a tone of genuine curiosity. "I have a feeling Batman wouldn't, since I toyed with them a little, but you seem less… stern."

"The results speak for themselves. Nobody was injured… or, nobody was injured seriously and no bystanders were hurt at all, so I can't complain." Clark affirmed. "And I expect you would adopt a more serious attitude in other situations."

Harry nodded at that, and Kara cleared her throat. She didn't like being ignored.

"What else can you do with magic?" She asked, in lieu of something better.

"Lots of things," Harry responded with a smirk. Perhaps at an inside joke? "Too many to list here and now, for sure."

"How strong are you?" Kara then asked.

"Very."

" _How_ very?"

"Quite very."

"Who in the League do you think you're stronger than, then?" Kara asked, after a huff of annoyance.

"I don't know all of the people in the league now, so there's no way to answer that question." Harry responded, still seeming amused at the conversation.

"Of the founders, then!"

"That depends," Harry shrugged. "Do you mean literal physical strength? Or do you mean power-wise?"

"Either. Both."

"I'm not sure."

"Stop doing that!"

"Both of you stop!" Superman exclaimed, though he had an expression and tone of slight amusement. "Harry, if you're still interested in joining the league the gathering of all our members is happening tomorrow at Seven PM East Coast time." At Harry's nod, Superman continued. "I'll meet you outside your hotel tomorrow and J'onn will teleport us up, if that's alright."

"That sounds good." Harry nodded his confirmation. "Anything else I need to know?"

"Well, until you're certain you don't want a superhero-persona I'd suggest coming up with one. Even if it's temporary most of us are uncomfortable being known for who we are in everyday life."

"I'll give it some thought," Harry shrugged noncommittally, and the conversation came to its natural end.


	7. A Robot and its Death Ray

**Sorry about the break between chapters (and for the long Authors note, I get carried away). I started writing this at an unfortunate time, I suppose, since I lost the motivation to write and add more stress to life than it already contains for a time. I'm back now, and hopefully the renewed knowledge that I enjoy writing, even if having five fics on the go at a time is not one of my better ideas, will stick with me. I hope you enjoy the chapter, and that it isn't disjointed; unfortunately it was written in a couple of chunks, but fingers crossed that that won't come across.**

 **And hopefully this being longer than my normal chapter length will do something to make up for the delay. This is the first that follows the vague timeline of one of the missions from the old JLU cartoon, but these chapters will most likely be few (and perhaps far between) as I made that mistake in a couple of my earlier attempts at Fanfics and found that it wasn't as enjoyable following someone else's path as making my own with a combination of machetes, bulldozers and angry locals. (No offence intended to any angry locals) But, with that in mind, please do bear with me in how soon I explain things; I will rarely veer from my chosen path to add in a scene to clarify (for example) why Harry is saying spells verbally. But I will often have a reason. If you ask nicely I will respond equally nicely and, on rare occasion, give you an answer. (If you really need an answer, it's be best to use PM, not reviews; I like reviews, but often miss them. PMs require replies, in my mind, far more than reviews as most reviewers aren't inclined to go to their profile page to find the responses.) Hello, to anyone who is still reading my rambling Authors note; I think you're in the minority. I have wrapping paper with penguins on it: I don't know why I've told you that, probably to test your patience some more. Have you gone to the story yet? No? Huh. Well, I won't take up much more of your time.**

 **Hot damn. I look away from the story for one measly little month-and-a-bit and it's over a thousand follows. That's a shock, when there's less than 30,000 words so far and 'tis a crossover. Thanks for the implied compliment to my work.**

 **I own nothing you recognise, I am simply using others' intellectual property for entertainment purposes. I make no money from writing this or anything else on the site.**

 **_()()_()()_**

"Was it really necessary to send a chaperone for me?" Harry asked, as the two walked down the pavement. "Presumably your teleporter could pick me up itself. Either that, or bringing a hundred heroes up will take a long time with one of you going to meet each of 'em."

"It was not necessary," J'onn replied, with a shake of his head. The martian was in the guise of a young man roughly Harry's age with brown hair and eyes. He wore a leather jacket similar to Harry's upon first inspection, and the two looked like friends out for a stroll as they headed away from the rush-our flow of people headed home from work. "But you are an unknown to us. We decided to… play it safe, and that the best way to do this was to spend time with you to understand the type of man you are."

"I assume that by 'we' you mean Batman convinced the rest of you that I was a potential danger?"

"How did you know?" J'onn asked, though his tone was nowhere near surprised.

"He seems paranoid," Harry shrugged non-committally. "He must trust you all, but I'd guess that that was only after he found out everything there was to know about each of you. There isn't a lot to know about me, and I'm told that I'm not the easiest person in the worlds to get a read of." He continued, with his own tone one as casual as if discussing the mild weather.

J'onn hummed, and the two carried on in silence as people around them bustled about their business. Harry's eyes roamed, and he examined the people sharing the footpath.

The vast majority were working folk. Office workers dressed in smart-wear hurrying home from their jobs in cubicles who didn't have the patience left in them to wait in traffic were shouldered aside by the manual labourers just as eager to reach the loving arms of their significant other, or their children, or just the drink waiting for them in the fridge. Dotted between them were better-dressed men and women. Managerial staff, or those in esteemed jobs, that lived locally, and whose working day ended at the same time as their subordinates. Even as Harry's eyes rested briefly on one of the more expensive suits, he saw a teenager bump into him and relieve the banker or lawyer of his wallet. The kid quickly weaved through the crowd, and by the time the man realised his money was gone was lost in the sea of people. Harry payed it no head; maybe the boy had a reason, maybe he didn't, Harry didn't care about the finances of a man clearly not struggling. Either the police would handle it or not.

That teenager was representative of one of the other, more noticeable, groups in Harry's eyes. Those who were not working. The vagrants stood out the most, but they were only the extreme; the poorer people were far more interesting to Harry. Or, more specifically, the difference between the two groups as a whole; they were both envious of the wealth the others held and unaware of the fact that their worries were less… unreasonable. In Harry's experience, the less money one had, the less arbitrary their complaints of life were. Even that which they should have worried over, they took with a grace that was uncommon in the upper classes. Harry was fairly certain that, back when he had an ordinary-ish life, he would have been afflicted by the first-world problems that mattered so little.

Or maybe he was wrong, if the nightmares he often had were anything to go by his life had started terribly and not gotten better before being pulled from the world.

"It's strange that you couldn't fetch me from the hotel," Harry mentioned, as the foot traffic thinned. His tone was pleasant; non accusatory since they'd already established the Manhunter's motives for being here.

"We're almost there," J'onn replied, and Harry observed him nod towards a park in the distance. Presumably, that was where they'd be beamed up. "And I would advise that, if you intend to adopt a disguise, you pause and become accoutred."

"Hm," Harry knew there were benefits to a secret identity, but was torn on the subject. The typical superhero had a civilian life that they wanted to protect. Harry didn't. He didn't even crave one, to be honest; normal life seemed excruciatingly boring. He was far more suited to life as it would be as a 'superhero' than… well, whatever career he might be able to do in the real world. And he had very few marketable skills for civilian life. But he shouldn't make it overly easy for anyone who wanted to find him. "Refer to me as Thaumaturgist for now, then. I'll cast a charm on my face that'll stop people from remembering any details about me unless they've already met me without it."

As Harry raised his hand to his face and cast a quick charm, the Manhunter nodded and spoke into his communication device. He let whoever was monitoring the frequency know the two were ready, and Harry unconsciously braced for teleportation that was not under his own power.

A few moments later, Harry realised that had been unnecessary. Unlike magical teleportation, the system the League used, one he didn't care to try to understand because it would doubtless be incredibly complex, was not at all uncomfortable. Almost unnoticeably so.

Harry's eyes widened noticeably at the sight of the League's headquarters.

-()()-

The original members were all present to greet the first arrival. Even Batman had chosen to be here for the induction of the new members. Several would be leaving to retrieve individuals soon after, but Harry had been brought up to the Watchtower a half an hour earlier than Superman would pick up his cousin. And Kara would be the first of the other members to arrive.

"What does that mean?" Wally asked Harry, upon being told his 'codename'.

"Someone with the capability to perform magic or miracles. It comes from some Greek words." Harry answered.

"How on Earth did you know that?" The Flash wondered aloud.

Harry smiled. "I Googled synonyms for wizard, and picked one."

Wally opened his mouth, frowning, to respond before closing it again slowly. Harry guessed he felt Harry had cheated in coming up with his superhero name, but the Wizard felt it was both far easier to do so and far more creative a result than some of his new allies' chosen titles.

"So," Harry continued. "Where is everyone?" He had understood that a hundred-or-so people would be joining the League, yet it was only him and those he'd already met with.

"We brought you in early," Superman answered for the others. "So that you could ease into meeting the others. We thought that you would be better able to handle it if you met them one at a time."

Harry nodded, but frowned imperceptibly. Or what would have been imperceivable had he not been in the presence of superhumans. "I'm not fragile, you know." He said in response, and then corrected himself. "Maybe you were just being logical about it, and if that's the case you're right; meeting and greeting individuals is the best way to form something of a connection to each. But if you're _mothering_ me, just don't. I don't want pity, and certainly don't need it." He addressed Superman, who was also frowning now.

"You don't need to put on a brave face here, Harry," Kal-el said, with his brow furrowed. "You're not in a warzone anymore."

The right corner of Harry's mouth lifted into a knowing smirk. "Everywhere's a warzone, Superman. And I'm not putting on a brave face. This is just my face." He looked over to Batman, who looked contemplative but not pitying. "So when do the new members get thrown into the fray? I assume that you need to observe my abilities, and the others', more thoroughly than you did by sending Superman to spy on me." At Batman's eyebrow rising, Harry continued. "I couldn't care less if you want to spy on me. I don't have a private life, so why would I?"

"As soon as a situation arises, we will send teams on missions," Batman answered. "Who goes depends on what team will best be able to respond."

"And everyone'll arrive here, I assume?" Harry pointed a thumb at the teleporter behind him and the Leaguers nodded. Harry walked away from the teleporter, and found a seat at the edge of the entrance hall, on a cool metal shelf, to await the other newbies. He sat patiently for half an hour as the un-super workers bustled to and fro going about monitoring the situations for which super-teams would be dispatched.

The first person who arrived, Harry did not recognise. That meant he hadn't met the man before, since his appearance was… unique. The superhero's physical form seemed to be composed of several different materials, none of which were flesh, and Harry plucked the memory from his subconscious of reading about the League helping a civilian transformed into this dubbed Metamorpho by the press. The man meandered over to Green Lantern, and the two made conversation in the time before the next person arrived.

Well, person might be a bit of a stretch. Red Tornado was an android that was somehow sentient, from what Harry understood. There wasn't a whole lot of information on the scarlet hero on the web, not that he had tried massively hard to find any.

The third person was who Harry had expected to be first on board. Based on her scowl, and her cousin's sterner-than-usual disposition, some kind of argument had taken place. While Harry would guess it had had to do with Clark being uncomfortable with her being at risk, he had nothing to support this possibility and so wouldn't assume to be correct.

Supergirl sat down with a huff and an unnecessary level of strength next to Harry. The wizard heard the metal dent, but pretended not to as Supergirl huffed again.

Upon the third noise of annoyance, Harry got the hint. He guessed, again, that she wanted to complain to him because no other females were available and the others were further, in her mind, from being her peers than him. Wonder Woman was off somewhere and no superheroines had arrived yet.

"Everything okay?" Harry asked, unnecessarily. He was amused by the response he received.

"No! No, everything's _not_ okay!" She, Harry needed to find out her name and in with her in this mood decided the guessing game they'd started might be taken badly. Almost certainly would be taken badly, he amended to himself as the Kryptonian smacked the metal she was sat upon and it crumpled. "Where does he get off telling me what I can and can't do?! He's not my father and I'm an adult!" Harry was certain that he had given no disbelief by his expression, but apparently Supergirl disagreed; maybe she had simply expected to see it. "I am! Now that I'm eighteen, it's legally true as well as psychologically! Even before then, I'd already been saving people left right and centre!" She paused, waiting for Harry to speak. The dimension traveller blinked before responding, hiding the fact that he had expected her to just rant and rave for a while.

"Against human enemies?" Harry knew the answer, but phrased it as a question. Supergirl frowned, opening her mouth to disagree. "Some of whom had superpowers, but were still human, yes?" Now, she nodded. "Superman knows that we're going to face greater threats than you have before, and is worried about you. That's what family does." _Usually_. "Be angry at him. Avoid him. Throw things. I'd advise playing pranks on him to express yourself. But it won't last long for either of you; he'll realise that you're able to take care of yourself and you'll realise that he has a point about the danger. There are people the League has faced in the past that dwarf anything you've faced before."

Supergirl tried to hide it, but Harry saw she understood what he was saying. Masking it with an annoyed mutter was a nice touch, though.

"I bet I could take you." She crossed her arms and fell silent.

The corner of Harry's mouth twitched. She had no idea.

-()()-

Supergirl left without a word of goodbye when an annoyed Batman arrived in the Watchtower for the second time. Instead of the first, when he was conversing in quiet tones with the blue-leotard wearing Nightwing, Batman escaped as soon as possible with a deeper scowl than usual for the perpetually grumpy hero and left Batgirl to the tender mercies of the other superheroes. Barbara lit up at seeing her friend approaching and the two set about catching up.

Harry wondered if Bruce and Clark would moan to each other about the two girls, as their younger allies were no doubt doing currently. Then, he wondered if Supergirl would be expressing her annoyance with _him_ as well as her cousin. It was quite likely, and would no doubt colour Batgirl's opinion of him for the time being; it was fortunate, then, that they shouldn't be working together in the foreseeable future.

He was pulled from this train of thought by a whistle from the space beside him, from the woman who had been approaching since arriving and scanning the room a few minutes before. Harry looked at her, and found a black haired woman of slightly above average height wearing a top hat and looking at the indentations on the metal next to Harry.

"Who did that?" Zatanna asked Harry. "Batman won't be happy." Harry agreed silently, hence his next action.

He waved his hand over the metal, and it returned to its previous form.

"Problem solved." He said simply as the woman stared.

"I guess I don't have to ask if you're the wizard Batman mentioned then, huh?" She grinned, her eyes moving from the spot to Harry and back again.

"Unless I'm wrong about you being intelligent, no." Harry shook his head.

"Intelligent?" The magician asked.

"You'd have to be to fool people that watch you perform magic every day," Harry shrugged. "A bit foolish to flaunt it, but intelligent nonetheless. Maybe just a tad cocky."

"I am that," She continued smiling. "But you have me at a disadvantage. You know who I am, but I don't know what to call you." Zatanna hinted.

"For now, call me Thaumaturgist. I'm not sure I agree with the secret-identity policy, but I can see some sense behind it." Harry explained his language choice quickly and without prompting.

"I see…" Zatanna sat on the repaired perch, facing Harry, and prompted the wizard to turn his head to focus on the woman. "Now, I'd very much like to pick your brain."

Harry grinned, as his eyes flicked to the crowd and back again.

"I'm afraid you should've arrived earlier, in that case. Superman looks to be ready to speak, and it would be rather rude of us not to listen."

"I didn't _mean_ to be so late. I had a show that I couldn't just _cancel_ ; people had tickets to see me weeks in advance."

"Even so, this isn't the best time to have a chat." Harry reasoned with a smile.

-()()-

"Thaumaturgist!" Green lantern called shortly after Superman's speech had finished. Harry looked to the man and found John waving him over to where the dark-skinned man stood with the green-skinned Martian Manhunter. Harry also noticed that John called Captain Atom and someone named Kara to him, but had turned to address his fellow magic user.

"See you around," Harry said to Zatanna, with whom he had been making small talk. "It sounds like I'm being given a mission."

"You still owe me an interrogation," She called, reminding Harry as he walked away with a wave of confirmation.

Harry weaved through the crowd of heroes, and made his way to where John and J'onn were patiently waiting. He blinked, then, as he found that 'Kara' was Supergirl. Well, he knew her name now.

"There's been some kind of nuclear accident in Chong-Mai, we're heading down their to investigate and contain the accident, or to try to remove the source." John gave a brief explanation to the three he had called over, before they began moving.

"'Remove the source?'" Harry repeated. "Is the source some kind of weapon?" He asked, knowing that Nuclear weapons were present in this world and that they posed a serious threat to lives.

"We don't know," John answered simply. "But it's best to be prepared for that possibility."

Harry raised an eyebrow, as he looked at Captain Atom and then Supergirl before moving his gaze back to the Founder. "And is that what I'm for? Being prepared for a wide range of possibilities? Because I'm not especially suited to dealing with Nukes, can't help calm the situation in any way that you'd approve of, and aren't likely to be trusted by the government there. Or, no more likely than the rest of you. From what I've read, they don't trust foreigners much no matter what."

"That's a fair statement." John avoided explicitly answering, and fell silent for a time as they made their way through metal corridors. "Have any of you been to Chong-mai?" He then asked.

"It's on the State Department's no-fly list." The pale-suited Captain Atom replied immediately to the question being posed. "It's a class-3 felony for American citizens to go there."

"Is it anywhere near Datona beach?" Kara asked in response, with an excited lift in her tone. Harry guessed she was looking forward to the mission.

"Nope." Harry said simply.

John sighed resolutely, and Harry wondered which answer had annoyed the Green Lantern. Two of the three had been… odd, so likely not his own.

As the four reached their destination, footsteps sounded behind them. Harry identified the green-themed hero as Green Arrow, and listened to his exchange with Green Lantern without much interest.

"Hey, hold up! You're not gonna leave me up here on Mount Olympus are you?" Oliver Queen asked of Green Lantern.

"You can get back the way you came." John returned curtly.

"Nu-uh. No one's playing pinball with my molecules again." Arrow shook his head.

"All right," Lantern did not seem to want to argue. "We'll drop you off. _After_ we're done."

-()()-

They had Wireless internet even on the Javelins. That blew Harry's mind, but he was happy to have access to it as he performed a quick Google search on the Smartphone he had purchased during his time on Earth. The company that sold it to him were far more interested in his method of payment than credentials, and so it had been quite easy to acquire a few of the handheld technologies.

"So, you're gonna let me drive? Right?" Kara asked John, who was actually sat behind the wheel. Harry noticed, with amusement, that Captain Atom's eyes widened in fear at the notion.

"Whoa- wait! Has she been certified in a Javelin?!" The energy-based-man asked, skeptical.

"Why don't you take the stick out, Corporal?" Kara shot a glance Harry's way, and frowned. He supposed it was because his attention appeared riveted on the phone in his hand. Therefore, she ignored the grumpy return from the other hero.

"Captain." He corrected.

"Hey, watcha lookin' at?" Kara asked, after a moment's silence. Harry took his eyes off the screen with a smile, and turned it around so that the blonde, leaning over her own headrest, could get a look. "Th-That's…"

On the screen, there was an article on Kara Kent from Smallville-High's newspaper. It was nothing incriminating, just a recalling of her breaking her school's academic record, but the heroine was evidently shocked that Harry had found her secret identity. Then, however, he could almost see her realising he identified Batman and Superman both and that he almost certainly would be capable of finding her in that case.

She gave him a nervous, slightly flustered grin before speaking again. "Interesting." She finished her previous sentence unconvincingly. "So, are you looking forward to the mission?" She asked, in an attempt to change the subject.

"You've forgiven me for earlier, then?" Harry asked, since she had seemed annoyed only an hour before.

"Yep. Ba-atgirl pointed out that you didn't really do anything wrong. You were kinda rude, but I haven't gotten the chance to _show_ you that I can handle myself. I'm sure you'll change your tune after this mission, when I show you how strong I am." From her happy expression, Harry knew that this was what she genuinely believed had happened.

He decided not to correct her, and tucked the phone into his trousers' pocket as he tuned into the hippy-ish Green Arrow express his unhappiness with Captain Atom being entirely made out of Nuclear energy. That was far from surprising, and Harry did not care; it would only be relevant if they needed to work together, after all.

With a mental shrug, Harry set about getting ready for what was to come.

-()()-

He walked off the Javelin with his forearms bare, and what appeared to be a kevlar vest covering his torso above a close-fitting shirt with sleeves ending at his elbows. Harry pretended not to notice the other members of his 'team' eying the tattoos on his forearms with curiosity; eventually he might need to explain their nature, but why seek that out?

The blood vessels in his arms were very pronounced. Harry didn't like that aspect of muscle tone; in the past it had made the jobs easier, if only slightly, for those who had less-than-friendly intentions towards him. Plus, they tended to light up when he cast any significant spells. That had given him away in nighttime situations before, and while this wouldn't be an issue today, it was a rather large problem for him overall. And it wasn't like he could cover his forearms, with the symbols that had been branded onto his flesh, any amount of power nearing significant and the material would burn. Unless, of course, he limited himself to the magics of his ancestors. And an issue with doing that, and it was far from the only one, was that it may well insult Death; it would be as though he was refusing her generous, if for a time unwelcome, gift.

John, not being overly interested in the 'tattoos', though Harry could see he recognised that they were significant, gave them their orders.

"We'll do recon," The Green Lantern said, curtly. "If you see anything, do not try to engage."

Harry nodded, Captain Atom saluted, and Kara gave a half hearted noise of confirmation. She was definitely the most interested in Harry's forearms, as she tried to angle her head to look at the underside of his right arm. Realising that was not the easiest way to get another look, Kara took hold of Harry's wrist, and turned his hand over without any resistance from the owner.

"What does it-" She began to ask, only to be cut off, suddenly, by Green Arrow shouting a warning to the group fifty feet from him.

"HEY!" All four heads snapped around to look at him, and found the archer pointing to the edge of the field, with an expression of panic.

John had erected a shield before the fired rocket made it more than halfway to the group, and it very nearly blocked Harry's spell from getting to the target. That would have been unfortunate, but far from life threatening. Just… mildly embarrassing for whoever was hit instead.

The spell found its mark, and the rocket stopped in mid air. With a _pop_ , it turned into a turkey, fell to the ground, and began flapping its wings wildly, squawking all the while.

The man with the RPG froze at the unexpected sight, and Harry saw his lips move as the bird turned towards he and his fellows and charged. But he wasn't alarmed just yet.

The wizard-turned superhero stepped around the barrier, and fired an icy-blue spell at the aggressive turkey. It ballooned to the size of a small house, and Harry heard panicked yells in a foreign tongue before a trio of RPGs caught the bird in its chest.

With a pained _squaw_ , the bird turned back to its original form, and the rocket propelled grenade sat harmlessly on the floor.

If the attackers sighed their relief, they followed shortly after with objectionable yells as green orbs, courtesy of Green Lantern, encircled each of their weapons and dragged them out of their grips. They flew through the air as though summoned, and fell into a pile off to the left of the Justice League group. John allowed his shield to fall, and stared down the unarmed soldiers with a scowl on his face only to be interrupted as the area was filled with the sound of the beating drum of a Helicopter's propeller.

Harry's eyes flicked to the sky as the source appeared, and touched down on the ground between the Leaguers and native soldiers.

A man, short of stature, stepped out of the helicopter and shot a glare at one of those on the ground. Based on the fact that the recipient of the look had two horizontal lines intersected by a single vertical, and the angry man had a trio of each, Harry guessed that the helicopter-man was a higher up.

"My apologies for the fireworks," Six-stripes said. "Colonel Kim here was just a farmer before the revolution. He does not know who you are." He gave a forced, unconvincing friendly smile. "Though I feel the need to ask, why is it that the you have honoured us with your presence?"

"You had some kind of nuclear accident," John reminded him.

"A minor problem. It is fully under control." The phony smile was back in full force. Harry felt an uncomfortable twinge of dislike for the man. Clearly, he was lying and that meant, in all likelihood, that this government was willing to sacrifice its civilians for the sake of hiding… whatever this was.

"If it's all the same to you-" John began, only to be cut off by the government official in front of him.

"It is _fully under control_ ," He stressed. "If it's all the same to you." The smile was gone now, and replaced by a hard, serious expression.

"Listen," Supergirl stepped forwards, with an angry look of equal intensity. "We came a long way to help, and-"

"Your help is not needed, and was not requested. Now goodbye." The man said, dismissively, and turned his back on the Leaguers to walk to his chopper. Harry was mildly impressed, for a moment, by the fact that he masked whatever fear he had of them so well.

Green Lantern glared at the man's back while he walked away, while Supergirl directed a heated look his way that Harry was half convinced would literally ignite the man with her Heat Vision. It was fortunate that she restrained herself, and turned on her heel with a huff and a scowl to stalk back to the Javelin. If she hadn't, it may well have caused an international incident. Or, at the very least, began the process of having a group of countries be anti-League.

Harry, on the other hand, stayed where he was with his eyes trained on the back of the government official.

" _Legilimens_."

-()()-

"They do _not_ have that fucking thing under control!" Harry snarled, as sparks danced over his knuckles. It had taken more restraint than he had had to muster in quite some time to stop from cursing the government bastard. "That son of a bitch watched his men _burn_ , and gave the order to leave them to their fate. He _knows_ that more still are going to die because of his refusal of our help, yet he's just letting it burn a path through his country."

"Thaumaturgist," A calming, soothing voice came from the monitor. "We have to operate in the bounds of the law. We cannot simply do as we deem necessary, or we will never be accepted. And if we aren't accepted, when the time comes that the world is in danger, we will not be able to act on their behalf."

There was still anger in Harry's eyes when he looked to the martian on screen. Each stayed stock still for several moments, and then Harry made a noise of annoyance and turned away from the screen. He left the room, and then the remaining Leaguers heard the main door open and close.

"Where's he going?" Kara asked, frowning at the doorway. "We can't let him go alone!" She objected, confirming what she herself assumed.

"He isn't going after it," John shook his head with a frown. "At least I hope he isn't. If he did, then he clearly doesn't fit with us; we can't have someone on the team who doesn't trust us to do what is right. We just need to proceed with caution to avoid an international incident."

"Where is Green Arrow?" J'onn asked suddenly.

"Right over…" John turned his head. "...there. Next to the doorway." His head fell, and John sighed. "We have to go after them."

"I thought you said Harry wasn't going after it!" Kara objected, again. "That he trusted us and so he wouldn't storm off on his own!"

"Fine. Then we have to go after Green Arrow, wherever he is."

"Coming?" Oliver Queen asked.

Harry scowled at the horizon with his arms crossed as he leant against the side of the Javelin. Fingers drummed against his left bicep as he internalised his anger. He grunted.

"Suit yourself." Oliver said curtly back. "A lot of people are going to die if we don't stop whatever the hell is going on." He reminded Harry, and ran into the woodlands to the right.

How he expected to outrun three flying beings, Harry had no idea.

His fingers then stopped drumming on his arm, and instead tightened around the flesh strongly enough to bruise the flesh.

Nobody cared more for life than Death. A mildly ironic fact, but wholly understandable. To meet every person at the moment of their death, and then have to take them at the moment of their death was just a part of her misfortune. Not the worst, in Harry's mind, but it was a horrific cross to bear nonetheless.

Harry's memory of his old self was clouded, but one thing he could remember was that he, too, held the sanctity of human life in high regard, so it wasn't surprising that Death's sadness had… affected him. It had not amplified Harry's opinion of life; his younger self would never take a life, Harry had learned that there were times that it was necessary. That those times were rather frequent for someone with his life. But what it had done was change it to be more… loathsome. Life sometimes had to be taken, and as nasty a job as it was Harry had long since proven that it would not consume him, that he was, at his very core, the same good man that he had been when mortality had been a factor.

But Harry's own moral compass was as distorted as any part of his personality. He knew what was right and wrong, but sometimes things weren't so simple as 'this is the right thing to do, so I should do this'. Sometimes one had to look at the big picture to avoid making things worse, or to avoid having unforeseen circumstances. It was a crippling fear, for reasons he thought were ample.

Harry had ignored Death a few times at first. Had been disgusted by the order to let something bad happen. And one of the people he saved had been a psychopath. Or they had been the politicians who decided to use weapons of mass destruction. Or they had been fucking bandits who tore through a town burning and raping.

The only person who's orders he obeyed, for this reason, were Death's. Yet he was a member of this society of superheroes; if he didn't do as they believed was correct, there were obvious potential results. It was the first bloody day of the extended members, who knew how many of them would follow his lead if he ditched them? Why they would, Harry didn't know… but what if they did? This legion of superheroes could do more good than anything he had ever seen in the past, even in a single generation. Harry would not ruin that even if his selfish reasons weren't taken into consideration.

And his selfish reasons were significant. This was his world now, was it not? These superheroes were the only ones that he would be able to interact with in anything approaching his genuine self. He did not want to sabotage the first friendships he would have had in a long, long time without good reason.

But saving thousands of civilians was a good fucking reason. That is, if this would result in truly saving them. Hell, the dictatorship that ran this country might be worse for them than the giant homicidal robot. If he interfered, then who could say that they wouldn't be offended and take their anger out on the civilians? And that wasn't even taking into consideration any outcomes that Harry had not thought of in the thirty-three seconds since Green Arrow had left.

"HARRY!"

Even as Harry's mind scrambled to make sense of the sudden, incredibly loud noise, his hand had snapped up and a scarlet cone of light had illuminated Kara's surprised face. Then, she had fallen to the floor, and Harry's left hand had followed his right. A turquoise jet of light struck the floor in front of him, and from it erupted a geister. The boiling hot water produced a fog then, and Harry was in the process of dropping into a crouch when he saw the unconscious girl who had crumpled to the floor in front of him.

"Shit. Kara?" Harry asked, and then said it again upon no sound coming from him. And again. Then it clicked, and Harry raised his right hand with his thumb pressed against his middle finger. When he clicked his fingers, Harry heard nothing.

 _Enervate_ was the spell he used to revive Kara; despite the stunning spell being a modified version, the reversal spell was the same as it had always been. And, so, Kara's eyes fluttered open, and locked onto his. She stared at him with what appeared to be confusion, and Harry spoke first.

"Why can't I hear anything?" He asked.

Harry couldn't hear her answer, but from the movement of Kara's lips, he gathered what she had said.

' _You can't hear anything? Did something… oh.'_ Her cheeks reddened, and Kara smiled sheepishly at him. ' _Well, you see_ … sometimes I forget that I have super-strength and such, and I guess that when I yelled to get your attention it was kind-of supercharged." Midway through her explanation, Harry's eardrums healed, and he repeated his test of clicking next to his right temple and, when he heard the sharp sound, by repeating the motion on the opposite side of his head.

"Well," Harry said in reply. "No harm, no foul." Then, he glanced to the side. "Though, from the looks of them, Green Lantern and Captain Atom might disagree with there being 'no harm'." He nodded to the two, stood a few metres from where Kara was still seated.

While the Captain was trying to hide his temporary deafness, he had a slightly confused look on his mask-face as he tried to gather what Harry and Kara were saying. Next to him, John had a hand against his head but seemed to have a better idea of what was happening even if his look of intense concentration made it clear he, too, had been affected by Kara's super-shout. Perhaps, Harry guessed, the ring had done something to protect him from the harm that would have come from an external source; that was what it did, after all, but it also made sense for the defences built in to the weapon to be more focused on physical attacks than sounds.

Then, Green Lantern shook off his distraction, and turned his head to stare at the woods Oliver had entered.

"We're going to follow," His voice was several decibels louder than normal, Harry noticed with idle amusement. His sour mood was all but gone; swept away by the strange turn of events that came after it. "He's got a head-start on us, but we can reach him before he does anything irreversible if we leave now.

"Remember, though, we have to try to be covert about this; they will misread the situation if we give them a reason to fear us. So we will have to follow on foot."

Kara didn't dare object, after her faux-pas, Captain Atom wasn't the type to object, even if he had heard John's words. And Harry didn't feel like being carried, or messing up in an attempt at controlled flight, so he was happy enough with the plan.

-()()-

"Brave sonofabitch, isn't he?" Harry's eyebrows raised, as he watched the comparatively tiny figure of Green Arrow shooting explosive arrows at a gargantuan robot.

Then, the three accompanying him took to the air, and Harry watched them go with a neutral expression. Maybe they'd forgotten he was confined to the ground. Well, Kara and Captain Atom probably did, since they were used to flying solo; Lantern looked to have other things on his mind, as he shot forwards and scooped Queen up in just enough time to save him from the robot's attack. From looking at it, Harry guessed it was some kind of nuclear death-ray. But, beyond the obvious that it would be best to avoid it, the nature really didn't matter to him.

Harry did an extremely quick bit of mental arithmetic, and decided that, until he had an idea of what the monstrosity could do, it would be best to get the bystanders out of the way. He turned on the spot.

 _Pop_.

He appeared next to one of the soldiers that had just now joined the crowd, and was breathing heavily. The man spun with a noise of surprise, and his hand went to the sidearm at his waist.

Harry tapped him on the head, his fingers pulsating with a ruby light at the same time, and the man's legs folded under him.

"Please do not panic," Harry said, loudly, to the fearful gazes of the locals. They stared at him without comprehension, and the wizard sighed. "Damn. Of course you don't speak English. Okay, it's probably not a good idea to cast a spell on you that has no obvious effect, so I won't use a translating charm." He frowned, wondering how they would react to a levitating charm. "Ah well, you'll get that I'm trying to help when you get over to the other side, I'm sure."

He raised his hands, with the palms flat towards the crowd, and they took to the air. The people yelled, panicked, at first. But people in their situation were always calmer than most people would suggest; the life-and-death nature of it all made their choices appear simpler. Between a man who seemed to be trying to help floating them across the chasm that had been blocking their path, and death by radiation burns to the nth degree, it was no surprise which choice they settled on as a group. Despite their fear, the men and women comforted the few children that were with them as they sped over the empty space.

Had he been nicer, Harry would have moved them at a more sedate pace when he saw two different floaters turning green. Actually, had he been nicer he would have created a bridge for them, or set them into motion with a more complex spell that would only require his activation and gently lift them to their destination. But he wasn't, and as a result the two fell to their knees as they touched down on solid ground. Harry turned away from them, and his eyes widened.

"HARRY!" This time, he was far enough to avoid the after-effects of Kara's super-lungs, but that and the fact that she wasn't great with the whole secret-identity thing barely occurred to him as the girl placed herself between Harry and the incoming nuclear death-ray. Harry scowled at that, and opened his mouth to remind her that he could teleport before realising the obvious; if the beam passed through his space then it would hit the opposite cliff of the chasm. And then the humans he had just saved would die.

But it was better for it to reach him than for Kara to try to _block_ the radiation; it was frustrating that she didn't realise how foolish it was to try, and Harry raised his hand to cast a spell at her to move the girl out of the way.

And then she was gone; tackled out of the way by a green, man-shaped blur. Harry's eyes followed her, and when she stopped moving it was to find herself inside an emerald cage extending from John Stewart's ring. Judging from the intense expression on the african-american man's face, it would hold her for the time needed for the attack to hit Harry. The Wizard smiled, comprehending why the Green Lantern had intervened.

After all, he had seen the spell Harry was going to use before.

" _Protego Flecto_." Harry said, and the beam of light met the shimmering shield on his palm. It was seemingly sucked into his hand, as Harry stood calmly waiting for the next step to occur. The radiation-based attack tore from his palm with an intensity equal to what had hit him; unfortunately, Harry had underestimated how much backwards force it would unleash, and was thrown into the pit behind him as his returned attack roared towards its sender.

As he spun in the air, his descent far from controlled, Harry heard the world above him shake and shudder. The robot had fallen over, then. Well, he was already spinning, so Harry decided to take advantage of the fact and, with a _pop_ disapparated again.

His spin stopped as Harry appeared in the air above the flat-on-its-ass robot, but the world kept going. So he stayed there in the air, hovering as he waited for the dizziness to fade. As it did, he noticed that the robot had not fully fallen; for some strange reason it was sat on the ground with its legs straight out in front of it. He almost got the feeling that it was confused and, when he realised why that was Harry let out a bark of laughter.

They had failed to predict this scenario, and the robot couldn't get back to its feet. The other four with him seemed to realise this at the same moment as Harry, having been waiting to see what the robot would do next, and each made to attack only to be stopped by Harry aiming his left palm at the ground with a look of discomfort on his face as his blood quite literally boiled with the energy coursing through.

The ankh on his hand's palm glowed a deep blue, as the blade of his branded scythe shone platinum, and the monster's body slackened as the fire around its shoulders and skull was extinguished.

And then it died. It's skull crumbled, and the body teetered backwards to crash into the ground. When the League removed the shell of the robot, they would discover the indentation it made in the earth, and that would explain the cloud of dust the heavy torso sent into the air.

After Harry descended, and his feet touched the ground, he scowled at his shaking hands. He only banished the expression when he noticed Supergirl rocketing towards him, with a grin on her face as the others followed at a slightly more sedate pace. The three didn't share her jubilation, Harry could see; they had shock and question in their eyes at what he had achieved, and the magic user had a feeling that their curiosity would not end well for him.


End file.
